MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry had submitted a petition related to the huge delay taking place in Madurai airport runway expansion because an underpass was not constructed till now on NH45B even though the then Chief Minister had announced in the State Legislative Assembly on August 27th 2021 that an underpass will be constructed on the national highway near the Madurai airport to facilitate the airport expansion project.
On behalf of the TN Chamber, a detailed representation was submitted to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Assurance Committee which held a detailed review meeting in Madurai on July 9th 2025 for the projects recommended in the Assembly.
“The runway expansion of Madurai airport was announced in the year 2009, but even after 16 years this project has not commenced because of incorrect estimates given about the underpass construction project by Tamil Nadu Road Infrastructure Development Corporation Managing Director Mrs.Geetha who had intentionally altered the project cost report with false information stating that this underpass project will cost Rs.600 crores for one kilometer instead of the original estimate which said that it will cost Rs.230 crores. Based on this incorrect estimate report, the underpass plan at Madurai airport was dropped by the Tamil Nadu State government on November 10th 2022 and instead an alternative road underpass project was mooted at Rs.200 crores project cost,” Dr.N.Jegatheesan, president, Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has said in a petition given to the Assembly Assurance Committee review meeting in Madurai yesterday.
Mr.T.Velmurugan, MLA and Chairman of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Assurance Committee which has 10 MLAs, had reviewed the implementation of projects that were recommended in the assembly and their current status now.
The TN Chamber president Dr.N.Jegatheesan had pointed out that the 27 kms stretch of national highway from Othakadai to Kappalur is udner the control of TNRIDC which is a wing of the State Highways Department.
LAND ACQUISITION DELAY:
“Now, there is a delay in taking up works for alternative road due to problems in land acquisition. The proposed alternative road requires a detour of 7 kms. City buses travel past the Madurai airport every five minutes and these buses serve 50 villages in 30 kms radius. The State government was required to acquire and handover 616 acres of land for runway expansion of Madurai airport. However, after a delay of 13 years, only about 529 acres of land was handed over to the Airports Authority of India in the year 2022. Still, 87 acres of land is pending to be handed over to AAI. So, we want the State government to speed up the works for underpass proposal near Madurai airport which was approved by the AAI,” Dr.N.Jegatheesan has said in a press statement here today.
Panruti MLA Mr.T.Velmurugan along with Madurai North MLA Mr.K.Thalapathi, Madurai South MLA Mr.M.Bhoominathan, Perundurai MLA Mr.Jayakumar and Karaikudi MLA Mr.Mangudi have expressed their support to the Madurai airport runway expansion project and underpass construction near Madurai airport for the convenience of people because of its infrastructure importance for south Tamil Nadu, the press release said.
