TEA President, Raja M Shanmugham thanked Edappadi Palanisamy, chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the initiatives taken for the expansion of Coimbatore Airport. The Kongu region comprising of seven districts of Western part of Tamil Nadu namely – Coimbatore, Tirupur, Karur, Nilgiris, Salem, Erode and Namakkal is contributing to more than 40% to the State GDP has been using Coimbatore International Airport and due to deprive of direct air connectivity to international destinations, the passengers are normally going to Chennai / Bangalore / Cochin / Tiruchirappalli every day to fly to an international destination via different hubs of foreign airlines in other countries, Raja M Shanmugham, President said. Moreover, while importing accessories from China and Hong Kong, Tirupur exporters are preferring Chennai airport because of more air connectivity which is lacking now in Coimbatore.
Shanmugham said the Kongu Global Forum constituted to develop this region has been striving hard and meeting the Ministry of Civil aviation, Airport Authority of India, State Government, several national carriers etc. to address the air connectivity issue exists in Coimbatore airport.
He was glad and S.P.Velumani, minister for Municipal Administration, Rural Development and Implementation of Special Programme for having high level meeting with Civil Aviation Secretary. R.N.Chaubey and Air Authority of India, Chairman. Guruprasad Mohapatra in Chennai on 27th October 2017 and discussed about the progress of expansion of various airports in Tamil Nadu and the land acquisition process involved. Subsequently, a meeting headed by S.P.Velumani, minister in the presence of Chief Secretary and senior officials, Civil Aviation Secretary and AAI Chairman was also held in Coimbatore and decided to form a special team for land acquisition to develop Coimbatore Airport.
Raja M Shanmugham said once the Coimbatore Airport and Air Cargo connectivity is increased further to development of Airport will help for overall economy enhancement from this region including exports from Tirupur.
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
