Kannur Airport to Begin Operation in Three Years

Thiruvananthapuram: According to Home and Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who held talks with the aviation authorities recently, Kannur airport will get final clearance from the federal government once the land acquisition is complete. The state government has already acquired 208 of the 2,000 acres earmarked for the project.
“We have already started acquiring the remaining land and we hope to complete the process in three months. We have also appointed a special officer to speed up land acquisition on a fast-track,” Balakrishnan said.
The government plans to build an airport city in Kannur that will also promote plantation tourism along Kerala’s famous spice route that attracted traders from Europe and Arabia centuries ago.
A tourism circuit is also being developed linking Bekel, Valiyaparamba, Muzhuppilangad and Wayanad.
This would be Kerala’s second corporate airport after the one run by the Cochin International Airport Limited. However, unlike the Cochin airport, the new airport will take the build-operate-transfer (BOT) route.
The government would soon invite proposals from potential investors. The Kerala Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) has been appointed as the agency to take the work forward.
The airport coming up at Moorkhanparamba near Mattanur has received the Environment Ministry’s clearance as well as the permission from the Aviation Ministry to operate with a single runway recently, after clearing the techno-economic and feasibility hurdles on the decade-old proposal.
14/05/07 Daijiworld.com

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports May 2007, New May 2007