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On Wednesday, the Minister of Tourism, K Lakshminarayanan, told the media that the government has proposed to expand the Puducherry Airport to allow bigger aircraft to land. The Puducherry government aims to change Puducherry Airport into an all-weather airport as part of its initiatives for the operation of more scheduled flights from the union territory and the recovery of flights on existing routes. K Lakshminarayanan, who also owns the Tourism portfolio, conducted a review meeting with the airport director and other officials and inspected the airport. He said that initially, efforts would be taken to get a provisional licence from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by complying with the provisions to the extent possible. About 70% of the necessities for an all-weather airport have been met already, and efforts are taken to satisfy all the necessities by giving land throughout the runway to an extent of 70 acres and by procuring land from Tamil Nadu for extension of the runway. It is to guarantee that flights can land and take off under all weather conditions and for the operation of larger flights. In a few areas in the runway near the sewage treatment plant and Navarkulam, since buildings are built, only 90 metres of space is free from the centre of the runway, instead of the 140-metre necessity of a no-construction zone on both sides of the runway. The Puducherry government will provide the available land near the runway to AAI to fulfil the need to the extent possible and obtain a temporary licence. Later, after the land acquisition from Tamil Nadu, the requirements for a 140-metre no-construction zone could be satisfied by enlarging the runway, said Lakshminarayanan. The existing runway length of 1502 metres is intended to be enlarged to 3330 metres for the bigger craft operation. In the first phase, the government will attempt to procure 104 acres of land from Tamil Nadu and the next 270 acres. Lakshminarayanan said that he would call on M K Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in this regard, and take the help of Villupuram Lok Sabha member D Ravi Kumar, in conducting a meeting with the Villupuram District Collector and officials of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to work out the land procurement. Lakshminarayan said that besides, to comply with other conditions of an all-weather airport, the height of trees and hoardings on the landing path of the aircraft near the Pondicherry-Tindivanam highway will be decreased with the help of Villupuram district officials. The additional technical conditions like lighting will be taken care of by the Airport Authority of India. The facility of establishing night landings would be taken up with DGCA. The working of scheduled flights from Puducherry Airport by its only flight operator SpiceJet, paused in March 2020. Now flight operators IndiGo, Spice Jet, Air Alliance and Trujet have displayed interest in running flights to places like Cochin, Salem, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Invitations are being sent to the operators to engage in a meeting in this concern, he said. Image Source Also read: AAI spends Rs 17,784 cr in last 5 years to renovate airports Also read: Haryana government to invest Rs 946 cr for Hisar Airport