Kishan thanks Modi for Sabarimala airport site

HYDERABAD: Union minister G. Kishan Reddy thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for site clearance approval for the construction of a greenfield airport for Sabarimala, near Kottayam in Kerala. Under Modi’s leadership, the Centre has aimed at democratising air travel and opening the sector to the middle class and the less privileged, he said.

He said that since Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014, 74 airports had been made operational. The total now stood at about 150 operational airports, he said.

The Centre was taking several steps in making yatras to spiritual centres more seamless. The site clearance for 2,263.18 acres of government land given to the airport was a step in this direction.

He said that close to 1 crore devotees, including around 15 lakh from the Telugu states, visit Sabarimala every year, a majority of them between November and January in the ‘Mandala’ season, he said.

The Rs 3,973-crore airport will be developed under the public-private partnership model after securing all clearance, Kishan Reddy said.