TN govt gives sanction for land acquisition: CM

Madurai, Apr 26 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said the state government has given sanction for the acquisition of land for the proposed expansion of Madurai airport.

After laying the foundation stone for the new Integrated Terminal Building at Madurai airport here tonight, he said he had signed the government order on April 24 for acquiring 614.33 acres of land for the project.

Referring to the requests from Congress and CPM MPs on the land acquisition, he said ''before coming to Madurai for laying the foundation stone for the new terminal building, I signed the papers.'' He said his government was ready to give full cooperation to the Centre for expanding and modernising the non-metro airports at Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore, Salem and Tuticorin. On completion, Madurai airport would be a world class airport similar to the ones at Singapore and Malaysia, he claimed.

In his address, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation (Independent Charge) Praful Patel said the Centre would take efforts to make all the airports in Tamil Nadu as world-class airports.

''This is our commitment and we will do it,'' he said.

By March 2009, we would have the first international flight from this new terminal, he added.

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