Chennai: Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said that the proposed greenfield airport project at Sriperumbudur was stuck owing to land issues and talks are on with the Tamil Nadu government in this regard.

Delivering the third G Ramachandran memorial lecture organised by the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) here on Saturday, the minister said there is a need to enhance the capacity to handle passengers in Chennai as there would be more demand in the years to come.

Pointing to a report by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the minister said Chennai requires an additional airport as passenger demand is expected to increase in 2020-21. The peak capacity of 23 million passengers of the Chennai airport is expected to fall short of the rising demand in 2020-21 triggering the need for an additional airport in the region, he said.

Jayant said to operate an airport in the city, nearly thousand acres of land was required which was difficult to procure. He said that the Chennai airport would be one of the global hubs of India along with Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. Responding to a question on a secondary runway in Chennai airport, the minister said that he would look into the issue.

His comments come after the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) directed the Airport Authority of India to respond to a petition from a Chennai resident who alleged that the extension of the Chennai airport secondary runway is a wasteful expenditure.