This is one project that is generating considerable attention even before it could take off. Coming up in the serene settings of ‘god’s own country’, the KGS Aranmula International Airport is attracting as much attention for being the first such private facility as for weathering a storm in the face of opposition from a section of the locals.
The opposition is about use of wet lands, levelling of paddy fields for the runway, and threat to environment.
Project promoter, KGS group, however, does not seem to be unduly worried. “The opposition [to the project] is very minimal. The protests haven’t slowed us,” declares Gigi George, Managing Director, KGS Aranmula International Airport Ltd.
Stating that government projects also face heat, he says that the project, coming up on 700 acres at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, has acquired all required clearances. They include approvals from the Union Ministries of Civil Aviation, Environment and Forests, Defence and Home Affairs besides those from the Kerala government.
11/11/12 N Ravikumar/The Hindu
