KOCHI: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated three mega projects at the Nedumbassery airport on Saturday. After opening the new international terminal, newly built 4.3-km road and capacity augmentation of the solar plant, Pinarayi said Kerala would soon become home to four well-managed international airports.
Later, the Chief Minister received the crew and passengers of the first plane - Jet Airways flight from Muscat - that landed at the new terminal.
“The Kannur airport is expected to be ready for commercial operation in six months. After maintenance works at the Kozhikode airport completed, the state government requested the Director General of Civil Aviation to grant permission for operation of large aircraft. We are expecting a favourable response from the authorities concerned,” said Pinarayi. He said the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) had broken the concept of ‘privatising profits and socialising losses’. “As the airport company grew over the years, the local community also benefited,” said Pinarayi, referring to the social responsibility initiatives taken up by the CIAL in the Angamaly municipality and the nearby panchayats.
“The successful implementation of infrastructure projects by the CIAL encouraged the government to launch more such projects, like the Kannur airport,” he said. The `850-crore international terminal is envisaged to cater to the needs of air passengers in the next 20 years.The existing domestic terminal will now be shifted to the present international terminal, which in turn will be used for operation of business flights.
The new terminal has centralised air conditioning system, 10 escalators, 21 elevators, three moving walkways, 33,000 sqft space for duty-free shops, 3,000 surveillance cameras, 700 fire detectors, 10 aero-bridges and modern baggage handling facility. It has a 100-percent LED lighting system.
Capacity of the solar power plant at the CIAL is being augmented by 6MW, considering the additional energy requirement after commissioning of the new terminal. The original capacity of 15.5MW is sufficient only for the two old terminals. The capacity augmentation of the solar plant will be done spending `30 crore, and is expected to be completed by May this year.
The new road and ROB, constructed at a cost of `98 crore, have reduced the distance to the airport from NH by one km.
The function was presided over by Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac. Water Resource Minister Mathew T Thomas delivered the keynote address.
K V Thomas MP; MLAs Hibi Eden, V D Satheesan, Roji John and Anwar Sadath; CIAL director M A Yusuff Ali and managing director V J Kurian spoke.