The Hindu : Front Page : Land acquisition for runway expansion at an advanced stage, says Collector

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Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010
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Land acquisition for runway expansion at an advanced stage, says Collector

L. Srikrishna

MADURAI: Land acquisition for runway expansion of the Madurai airport was at an advanced stage and would be completed soon, said the Collector C. Kamaraj here on Tuesday.

The runway area of the airport is 7,500 feet and it has been proposed to extend it to 12,000 feet which will enable bigger aircraft to land and take off comfortably. For this purpose, 614 acres of land is required. The Airports Authority of India assured to commence expansion work as soon as the State Government handed over the property.

Though there were apprehensions from locals over speedy acquisition of land for runway expansion, officials claimed that they had identified the land for the purpose.

“We are progressing in the right direction and soon the work will be completed,” Mr. Kamaraj told The Hindu.

On Kalaignar Housing Scheme, he said that out of 8,762 units planned for the district, 60 units were completed so far and handed over to beneficiaries last week.

The review of the construction activities indicated that basement was completed in over 5,500 dwellings and 718 units had reached the roof level.

When some officials pointed to the slackness due to rains and holidays, he appealed to them to get the work completed as per the time schedule.

Agricultural activities

To a large extent, agricultural activities were in full swing in the district, with water being released on October 2. Last year, water was released on October 24.

With fertilizers available at all outlets, farmers did not foresee any major threat at this stage.

However, he urged the agriculture department officials to create an awareness of the need for effective water management. Mr. Kamaraj was hopeful of achieving the target of 26,000 hectares under the Rajarajan (RR) system in the district.

“We have almost crossed 11000 ha till date,” he noted.

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