Top priority for Karipur airport

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told Assembly on Monday that the LDF Government was giving top priority for development of Karipur airport.

Replying to the notice for adjournment motion moved by M.K. Muneer of Muslim League, he said the airport was the main centre for Haj Pilgrims from Kerala. However, he lamented that the required support was not being extended by the Centre for development activities.

The Chief Minister said after the Mangalapuram air crash the number of international services from tabletop airports had been reduced significantly due to security reasons.  As per the conditions laid down by Director General of Civil Aviation, several facilities have to be increased including runway length, parallel taxi way, runway and safety area in a time bound manner.

For putting in place these infrastructure facilities, the government has given administrative nod for land acquisition. A total of 137 acres of land is needed for airport development.

The process of acquiring 15.25 acre land for handing over to the Airport Authority of India for parking facilities is in the final stages.

Mr Vijayan said there have been protests against land acquisition for development projects from the local population. Such protests would push the development works backwards. Hence the issues need  to be tackled and sorted out.

The Chief Minister said the state government had demanded services of big aircraft to the Karipur airport. The director general of aviation had given the permission in August 2018. Subsequently services had also begun.

The government had demanded that Kozhikode airport should be incl-uded as Haj Embarkation point. This was subsequently approved by the minorities’ ministry in 2018.

The notification of minorities’ ministry order reinstating the Karipur airport as Haj Embarkation point has been issued. “We hope the union civil aviation ministry will allow Air India and Emirates to operate big aircraft in this sector,” he said.

The arrival block of the airport has been commissioned which can accommodate at least 5000 people at a time.