Madurai airport expansion stalled over pending land handover: AAI
The expansion project, first planned in 2009, aims to extend the runway and upgrade facilities to handle larger aircraft. However, work has been at a standstill primarily due to incomplete land acquisition
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has revealed that the long-pending expansion of Madurai airport cannot proceed until the Tamil Nadu government hands over the remaining land, blaming delays spanning over 15 years on the state.
In a detailed response to an RTI query, the AAI clarified key aspects of the project, including land status, allocated funds, and the controversial issue of renaming the airport.
What AAI said in RTI reply
The expansion project, first planned in 2009, aims to extend the runway and upgrade facilities to handle larger aircraft. However, work has been at a standstill primarily due to incomplete land acquisition.
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According to the AAI's RTI reply, out of a total required 633.17 acres, 543.64 acres have already been handed over, the remaining 89.53 acres, plus an additional 17.69 acres needed, totalling approximately 107.22 acres, are yet to be transferred by the state government. Only after full land handover will the runway extension begin, a 1,524-metre-long and 45-metre-wide CAT-E standard runway suitable for wide-body aircraft, it said.
In the response, the AAI also highlighted partial progress on peripheral works including a 13.3 km perimeter wall has been completed at a cost of Rs 8.23 crore, however, due to land issues, about 2.5 km of the wall remains unfinished. The authority emphasised that the full expansion, including new terminals and other infrastructure, will only commence once all land is acquired and handed over encumbrance-free.
Madurai MP slams Centre
On a query regarding constructing the runway over the Madurai-Thirumangalam National Highway, the AAI categorically replied, "No".
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Madurai International Airport currently handles significant domestic and limited international traffic but lags in capacity compared to peers like Coimbatore and Trichy, partly due to the stalled upgrades.
Madurai airport has shown steady recovery and growth in passenger footfall since the COVID-19 disruptions, driven primarily by increased domestic travel. The airport, ranked as India's 40th-busiest, handled over 1.2 million passengers annually as of recent estimates, with capacity for up to 2 million.
CPI(M) Lok Sabha member and Madurai MP Su Venkatesan accused the Union government of deliberately stalling the growth of Madurai International Airport while fast-tracking smaller airports in other states. The MP said the Centre flatly rejected a Metro rail project for Madurai, yet it is aggressively promoting brand-new airports in other states that don’t even have basic infrastructure and at the same time, it is systematically neglecting Madurai Airport, which already handles heavy traffic and has huge untapped potential.
He pointed out that the much-needed expansion to raise the airport’s capacity from the current 2 million to over 3 million passengers per annum remains frozen only because of pending land acquisition issues. “Even after 15 years, the runway extension and terminal upgrade are stuck because of land delays. This is not just an administrative bottleneck; it is a political choice to keep southern Tamil Nadu underdeveloped,” Venkatesan charged.
The MP reserved his strongest criticism for the Centre’s refusal to include Madurai in the special ASEAN air connectivity agreement, which would have opened direct flights to several South-East Asian destinations. “Eighteen airports across India have been selected under the tourism and cultural promotion scheme, but Madurai, the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu, has been deliberately left out. This is an unjust and discriminatory policy decision that will directly harm the economic and tourism growth of the entire southern region,” he said.
Renaming of Madurai airport
Addressing the sensitive issue of renaming Madurai airport, which is often demanded to honour freedom fighter and Thevar community icon Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar or other leaders, the AAI stated that no official recommendation has been received from the Tamil Nadu government. Furthermore, the AAI clarified that, "renaming of airports is a policy decision of the Central Government".
This comes amid demands from many political parties including AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who recently reiterated his party’s long-standing demand that the airport be named after Muthuramalinga Thevar. However, Puthiya Tamilagam founder-president Dr K. Krishnasamy has strongly condemned the move and put forward an alternative name: Thiyagi Immanuel Sekaran, the Dalit leader and freedom fighter who was murdered in 1957 during anti-untouchability struggles.
Dr. Krishnasamy told The Federal that Devendrar community members (Devendra Kula Vellalars) sacrificed the maximum land for both the original airport and its subsequent expansions, often at throwaway prices or even as donations. “When the airport was established and later expanded, thousands of acres belonging to our community were acquired at nominal rates. Many gave their lands voluntarily for the public good,” he said.
He stressed that it is an established practice worldwide that when private or community land is taken for public projects, the wishes of the land losers are honoured in naming the facility.
