Work on Kannur airport to start soon

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has decided to speed up work on its fourth international airport in the northern Kannur district, nearly a year after it received the federal government’s green signal.
The government will recruit workers to help acquire 2,000 acres of land for the project at Moorkanparamba, 30km from the Kannur city, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said.
“We will complete the land acquisition within six months so that work on the airport can start without delay,” he told reporters.
Last week federal Aviation Minister Praful Patel promised the state that the final clearance for the project would be give as soon as the land acquisition is complete.
Kerala wants the Kannur airport to be built by private entrepreneurs without any financial help from the Airports Authority of India under a build-operate-transfer model. The Left Democratic Party (LDF) has ruled out a public-private-partnership model on the lines of the successful Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) saying it would delay the project.
Hotel baron Krishnan Nair of the Leela Group has proposed to build the airport in collaboration with Singapore’s Changi airport, a major aviation hub in Asia. The state government is yet to respond to the proposal.
15/08/07 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times, Qatar

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Categories: Airports Aug 2007, New Aug 2007