Tamil Nadu airport expansion: Madurai villagers protest against land acquisition, more than 1,000 police deployed – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Villagers in Tamil Nadu’s Chinna Udaippa village launched a protest against the acquisition of land for the expansion of Madurai airport. More than 1,000 police personnel have been deployed to ensure law and order in the area.
Protesters are demanding three cents of land and a house in exchange for purchasing their properties for the Madurai airport expansion project. Madurai Airport, which currently occupies 502.25 hectares, plans to acquire another 633.17 hectares. Of this, according to officials, 543.64 hectares have already been transferred for the expansion, IANS reported.

Madurai Collector MS Sangeetha has granted administrative approval for the acquisition of land for construction of an alternate road, which will pave the way for completion of a compound wall around the newly acquired airport site. So far, the airport has built a 12.36 km compound wall on the expanded land.
Although Madurai Airport got a new terminal in 2010 and now operates international flights to destinations such as Singapore, Dubai and Colombo, it still does not have international status. The airport handled 1.4 million passengers in the period 2023-2024 and was operational 24×7 from October 1.