By John Mary for The Peninsula
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 9: Prospects have brightened for Kerala fourth airport in the northern Kannur town with Federal Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel agreeing to waive the condition on two runways in view of land scarcity in the state.
Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, also the chairman of the Kannur Airport Action Committee, got the assurance from Patel in New Delhi on Wednesday. Airports Authority of India (AAI) had earlier opposed another airport in a tiny state like Kerala lest it should affect the viability of the other three international airports. The AAI had pointed out that Karipur and Mangalore in Karnataka were too close for a new port at Kannur to thrive.
Balakrishnan said the Cabinet meeting would decide on the special officer for firming up the logistics now that the Federal government had agreed to consider the taxiway in place of the second runway.
The government plans to construct the airport on the lines of the successful Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) model that owns the Nedumbassery airport or on BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis. Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan’s principal secretary Sheela Thomas told said most of AAI objections had been cleared. The previous government had obtained an assurance on waiving the stipulation of minimum distance of 200km between two airports since the distance between Karipur and Kannur was less than 100km.
The runway alignment was also altered to suit the wind flow directions as pointed out by the AAI. The clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Security Affairs was a must since the Ezhimala Naval Academy was close by. But all those concerns had been factored in while drawing up the project, she said.
Now what remained was land acquisition and deciding what precise route to be selected for project funding, she said. The Federal government had given in-principle clearance for the airport soon after former chief minister Oommen Chandy cleared the project at a Cabinet meeting in November last year.
The project, which is proposed to be implemented through public-private participation route, is estimated to cost Rs 10bn and the airport development will be in three phases.
The joint venture will have a debt-equity ratio of 70:30. Kerala government and its institutions will participate in the equity to the extent of 26 per cent, seeking to avail of a Federal assistance of Rs1.2bn under infrastructure viability gap funding.
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