CIAL lags behind in green norms

Kochi: The Cochin International Airport is lagging behind many other airports of the country in meeting green norms. While the Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi airports have achieved Level 3 of ‘optimisation,’ going by the Airports Council of International-Asia-Pacific, a global body working to reduce  carbon emissions, CIAL has still a long way to go.

But senior officers at the airport say it will comply with environmental norms while building and commissioning its new state of- the- art international terminal at a cost of Rs 450 crore.

“It’s difficult for CIAL to meet green norms now as the airport is 15 years old. The Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi airports were commissioned in the private sector over five years ago at a cost of thousands of crores while CIAL, built on a public private partnership basis, had an initial investment of  only Rs 300 crore. We will however meet the required norms while building the new terminal. After its commissioning we will turn our attention to the existing terminals,” said one official, explaining that the airport  was already working to save energy by installing a 100 KW solar plant in March and a 1000 KW solar plant more recently.

“But it is difficult to keep the air quality in the existing terminal within prescribed limits with the kind of equipment installed, and reduce energy consumption with the existing lights and gadgets. LEDs will be used in the new terminal and will replace the existing ones later,” he added.