No stopping Aranmula airport work, vows Chandy

By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has made it clear that there would be no going back on the setting up of India’s first low-cost private airport in Kerala’s Aranmula town despite opposition.

“Who is opposed to the airport? These very people allowed the reclamation of farmland and prepared the grounds after according all sanctions during their rule. Who will take responsibility for abandoning a project midway?” he asked reporters here yesterday.

The majority of the legislators in the state assembly (72/140) had last week signed a petition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for stalling the K G S Aranmula International Airport on environmental grounds.

Six of the legislators belonged to the Congress party-led ruling United Democratic Front (UDF).

The project was sanctioned by the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government headed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). However, all its members, including V S Achuthanandan, who signed the initial order as chief minister, and his ministers, have now signed the petition.

“It was they who cleared the project in undue haste and earmarked thousands of acres of wetland for commercial utilisation as part of the project. What we did was limit the use of land for the airport. The project should go on but we won’t utilise an inch of wetland for other purposes,” the chief minister assured.

The airport now has a clear title of 500 acres in its possession and the state government has decided to regularise another 200 acres of land, which was recently notified as excess land by the revenue officials.

The state cabinet has also decided to accept 10% equity in the project.

“All the damage to the environment has already taken place and no more can occur,” Chandy pointed out.

“We will make available the land required for construction of the passenger terminal and the runway so that the project takes off”.

In 2011, Achuthanandan, as chief minister, had given all preliminary sanctions for the airport at the fag end of his tenure.

When Chandy’s government decided to go ahead with the project, Achuthanandan led a group of green activists and staged a protest at the airport site.

The federal government included the airport in its list of major infrastructure projects to boost the economy.

The company, in which the Reliance group holds a 15% stake, was planning to start work soon on the runway, designed to cater to aircraft such as Airbus A-320 and Boeing 747 with a terminal building capable of handling nearly 1,000 passengers at a time.

But the activists hope that the petition signed by the majority of legislators will now put a spanner in the works, and may also lead to prolonged litigation if the promoters seek compensation.

Kerala CM plays down turbulent phase

Though many feel Chandy is passing through a turbulent phase in his four-decade-old political career, the Kerala chief minister insists he has seen worse. Since last month, Chandy has been in the eye of a storm, facing flak from the opposition CPI-M for his alleged links with a “con-couple” who are now behind bars in a cheating case. The CPI-M has been baying for his resignation. “This is nothing compared to the ruckus created by the CPI-M in the mid-1980s against me. During 1982 to 1987 when I was a minister, the CPI-M led by E K Nayanar and M V Raghavan foisted a fabricated case of selling forest wood on me,” Chandy recalled. “To prove that I have done no wrong, I announced in the assembly that I would face a judicial probe,” said Chandy.