The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has found a site closer to Keelakarai favourable for building the greenfield airport at Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district.
The pre-feasibility report was submitted to the Tamil Nadu government recently, and the site near Keelakarai, near Manikaneri and Mayakulam villages, has been found to be technically feasible for constructing the airport, AAI sources said.
In September last year, the Tamil Nadu government sent a letter to the AAI to examine and inspect two sites — one near Uchipuli and another near Keelakarai. Following this, a joint team from the AAI and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) conducted a field inspection of both sites in October last year.
The site near Keelakarai has a few high-tension lines and waterbodies. When compared to the site near Uchipuli, which has a lot of trees, paddy fields, groundwater wells, and residents, the site close to Keelakarai has lesser obstacles and residents as seen from the initial inspection. The high-tension lines will have to be re-routed should the airport come up at this site, the AAI said.
The pre-feasibility report says the site is about 10 km from the Ramanathapuram Railway Station, 120 km from the Madurai airport and 140 km from the Thoothukudi airport and is a fairly contiguous land. But it is to be noted that the airspace of both sites are in close proximity to INS Parundu, an Indian Naval Air Station, the AAI sources said.
