CII demands State government to speed up expansion works at Salem Airport

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Salem, has demanded the State government to expedite the process of Salem Airport expansion and to acquire land for the project from the farmers. The Salem airport is spread over 136 acres at Kamalapuram. In 2018, the AIADMK-led State government decided to expand the airport, and issued a G.O. on February 15, 2018, to acquire 567.43 acres of land, including 535.10 acres of patta land and 32.33 acres of government poramboke land in Kamalapuram, Pottiyapuram, Sikkanmpatti, and Thumbipadi villages. But, farmers and political parties, including the DMK, PMK, and TMC (M), opposed acquiring farm lands. On June 9, 2022, the State government led by DMK issued another G.O. to acquire 117.35 acres of land, additionally including 94.38 acres of patta land and 22.97 acres of poramboke lands for the airport expansion. Yet, land acquisition did not process due to protests and oppositions. Meanwhile, based on the Salem Collector’s proposal and the recommendation of the Commissioner of land administration, on November 17, 2025, the government approved for acquiring 206.17 acres of land in a first phase at a cost of ₹364.85 crore. However, the land-acquiring process is yet to commence. The CII Salem zone chairman P. Boopalan said, to transform Salem into a world-class industrial and transit hub by 2035, the immediate focus should be on the phase I expansion of Salem Airport, with most routes experiencing higher demand averages at an occupancy rate of over 80%. He added that with 1,800 meters of runway, the airport presently handles only ATR/Bombardier variants of flights. The airport has the capacity to handle one flight per hour, which can be greatly improved with airport expansion.. Mr. Boopalan noted that the airport currently serves destinations including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Cochin, apart from Chennai. Likewise, the DGCA-approved flight training organisation is in Salem, which is the only one in Tamil Nadu. The union government recently released ₹24 crore towards improving airport infrastructure, he added. N. Senthil Kumar, former president of the CII Salem zone and co-convenor of the MSME panel of CII Tamil Nadu, said that about ₹310 crore from the allotted ₹364.85 crore, for the expansion, has been sanctioned and is awaiting disbursement. “We request Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to issue necessary orders towards disbursement of funds to the landowners and initiate the land acquisition process, which has been halted for eight years, towards handing it over to the Airport Authority of India. Mr. Kumar said that once land acquisition is complete, runway expansion and installation of instrument landing systems to facilitate critical night landing can be easily undertaken.