By Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times Correspondent/Thiruvananthapuram
The Malabar Development Forum (MDF), a pressure group campaigning for the development of Calicut International Airport in the northern Kerala, has expressed satisfaction over the progress of work.
The airport’s 2,860m tabletop runway is being repaired and re-carpeted, and the process of acquiring 487 acres for expanding it to 3,400m and doubling the passenger handling capacity is under process.
“The process gained momentum after last week’s meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy,” T P M Hashir Ali, a spokesman for the group, said. “The re-carpeting working is also progressing at a fast pace.”
Several fringe groups that were resisting land acquisition agreed to end their protests on the assurance that some 600 families being displaced would be paid the market price and rehabilitated.
“Our wait for 15 years ends here,” Ali said.
The Calicut Chamber of Commerce said its delegation had visited the airport to get first-hand information, and it was convinced the first phase of re-carpeting works would be over soon and wide-bodied aircraft would resume operations by April.
The Chamber was also hopeful that Haj pilgrims would be able to take flights from Calicut Airport in the next season.
In a statement, it hailed the state government’s move to acquire additional land.
However, airport director K Janardhanan said only 8% of the runway work has been completed so far, and wide-bodied flights would resume full services only by February 2017.
The airport was closed for big-bodied aircraft on May 1, forcing Emirates, Saudi Airlines and Air India to divert some of their flights to Cochin International Airport 155km away.
“We are planning to increase the peak-hour passenger handling capacity from 2,000 to 4,000. For this, a separate international arrival terminal will be built along with allied facilities,” Janardhanan said.
When completed, Calicut will have the biggest runway among the four international airports in Kerala. It’s length will be extended to 3,400m, on par with the Cochin and Trivandrum airports.
The runway of the upcoming Kannur International Airport, where the first trial-run flight will land on December 31, will be 3,050m initially and the authorities are planning to acquire more land for its expansion before the launch of commercial services in June.
“We are planning to build the new terminal on 137 acres, and the runway is to be extended to the 248 acres,” Janardhanan aid.
After the expansion work is completed, the airport’s passenger handling capacity will be doubled.
