Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has cleared the decks for the long-stalled expansion of Coimbatore International Airport in a desperate bid to gain ground in the state’s western region ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.
The project had been a bone of contention between Tamil Nadu and the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for more than 14 years owing to a dispute over the land acquisition process.
However, the state’s DMK government has now reversed its stand and agreed to hand over more than 600 acres of land required for the airport’s expansion to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) without any conditions. In a major U-turn on its previous policy of not allowing sub-leasing of land to the private sector, the state government has given the land free of charge on a 99-year lease without any sub-leasing restrictions.
Political commentators said the DMK had made a calculated political decision aimed at increasing its influence in the state’s western region, once the bastion of the AIADMK.
“We cannot ignore that the BJP and AIADMK have been fighting vigorously to retain their spaces in the western region of Tamil Nadu,” said Raveendran Duraisamy, a political commentator. “At the same time, the DMK is trying to maintain a smooth Centre and state relationship to attain its political goals in the state.”
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Hitting a roadblock
The ambitious Coimbatore airport expansion plan first hit the skids when the DMK came back to power after a gap of 10 years in 2021. The state government then decided it would not transfer land ownership to the AAI but would give it on lease with some conditions.
The most contentious condition was that if the Centre handed over the airport to private players, lease payments to Tamil Nadu would be increased to reflect the market value of the land. But in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha polls, the DMK has decided to bury the hatchet on the Coimbatore International Airport expansion project.
A senior state cabinet minister, who did not want to be identified, said the Tamil Nadu government had not compromised and the idea of expanding the Coimbatore airport was actually initiated during the previous DMK regime.
“It cannot be termed as a compromise on state rights, but a relaxation to bring in development projects that will eventually benefit the people of the state,” the minister said.
In 2010, the DMK-led state government issued an order for the airport’s expansion and about 600 acres of land were identified for acquisition. However, the process of acquiring land and allocation of funds only began in 2018 under the AIADMK government.
After years of talks with land owners and other stakeholders about the land acquisition, the issue was finally settled last month.
On 23 August, the district administration gave permission to AAI to use the land.
“We have done our part and now it is for the Union government to react,” said DMK MP from Coimbatore Ganapathy P. Rajkumar.
Win-win for DMK and BJP
The airport project will be a win-win for both the DMK and BJP.
With the state assembly election due in 2026, the DMK, AIADMK and BJP want to strengthen their position in the western region of Tamil Nadu.
The BJP’s Coimbatore South MLA, Vanathi Srinivasan, said the government changed its policy because it realised the ruling DMK party has only two more years left.
“They know it is going to be a BJP-led government (at the centre) for the next five years and they cannot keep fighting over the issues,” Vanathi told ThePrint.
Coimbatore district is particularly important for the DMK. Though it came to power with a majority of 133 seats in the 234-member assembly, it could not win a single seat in the district’s 10 constituencies.
The party made some headway in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it managed to win the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency, which comprises six assembly segments.
The BJP won one seat in the Coimbatore district in the 2021 assembly election. And it came second in this year’s Lok Sabha election, pushing the AIADMK to the third position.
“To retain the support wave the DMK has got in the Lok Sabha election, it has to do something for the people of Coimbatore,” said P. Sigamani, a political commentator.
“It could be seen as a gesture of bringing in schemes for the people of Coimbatore to gain their trust for the 2026 assembly polls.”
However, Sigamani also said there are suspicions about the DMK government’s move to give up the state’s rights by diluting its stand on the airport expansion.
Speculation has been swirling about the DMK and BJP cosying up to each other but the two parties are ideologically polar opposites and any alliance between them is unlikely.
“Though the DMK knows it would be suicidal to join hands with the BJP, it is the responsibility of the DMK to clear the doubts of people on a possible realignment with BJP in the future,” Sigamani said.
Industrialists welcome decision
Industrialists have been asking for the expansion of Coimbatore’s international airport for at least two decades to improve connectivity with Tamil Nadu’s rapidly industrialising western region. According to an AAI official privy to the airport expansion project, AAI has decided to expand the airport’s runway to allow larger double-engine aircraft to land.
The official added that the expansion would increase the airport’s traffic-handling capacity to 15 million passengers a year from about 3.5 million passengers.
At present, flight services to Abu Dhabi and Singapore are available from Coimbatore International Airport.
Industrialists welcomed the government’s decision, saying better flight connectivity with foreign countries would improve the export of goods. “With increased connectivity becoming possible in the near future, MSMEs will get more orders from foreign countries,” said B. Sriramalu, president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Coimbatore.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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