The Hindu : Front Page : Salem airport remains inactive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 31, 2007
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Front Page

Salem airport remains inactive

R.Ilangovan

SALEM: Despite being witness to a flurry of development activities for a staggering Rs. 3,000 crore, Salem airport remains inactive. It is wearing the look of a deserted war-time strip with no connectivity. A private airliner, which evinced keen interest to fly from here, not in the distant past, also backed out citing lack of ‘discernible enthusiasm’ as the reason.

The operators claimed that the cream of the city’s society and in the adjoining districts of Namakkal and Dharmapuri had refused to ensure a win-win situation for both the operator and flier. In fact the deal to fly in and out of Salem Airport at that time appeared a reality when a Joint Inspection Committee of the Airport Authority of India (AAI), including officials from the Regional Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Directorate of Civil Aviation inspected the airport to ascertain the feasibility of reviving the domestic operations. But the initiative withered away.

However a senior spokesperson for the Paramount Airways told The Hindu on Friday that they could study and decide on the feasibility of operating in the Salem sector provided the trade and industry people from this region of focus approach them with details on the traffic viability. The glimmer of hope also brightens following an assurance from the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss that he had taken up the issue with the Ministry of Aviation.

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