India’s Defense Minister AK Antony will flag off the construction work of the runway of the new international airport coming up in Kerala’s northern city of Kannur next week.
“The Larsen & Toubro, the construction major which bagged the contract for building the runway, taxiway, apron and other related infrastructure has already started work. The defense minister will officially inaugurate it on Sunday,” K Babu, the southern state’s minister for ports and airports told the state legislative assembly.
The second phase of construction, including the terminal building and air traffic control, will begin during April-May and the first flight is expected to take off on December 31 next year, according to the timeline set by the airport company.
The Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) has also brought down the private participation in the project from 49 percent to just 16 percent with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and other state-controlled entities like Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) expressing the desire to take a stake in the company.
The state government also increased its equity participation from 26 percent to 35 percent in the project, the tiny state’s fourth international airport after Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut which are surviving on the support of huge diaspora in the Gulf region and the tourists.
“This project will fuel the tourism industry besides the all-round development of the Malabar region. This is one of the prestigious projects of the state government to improve basic infrastructure,” he said.
The outlay for the first phase of the greenfield project, conceived as the biggest airport in the state coming up in 2000 acres, is estimated at Rs17.92 billion. The minister said the response from the small investors remained lukewarm so far.
“The state has converted the land into the stake while we have received shares of all the public-sector firms. However, only one-third of the 16 percent stake earmarked for individuals were subscribed so far,” the minister said.
Due to poor response, the minimum subscription amount of Rs 200,100 originally fixed was reduced to Rs50,000 later to attract ordinary investors from the diaspora. The authorized capital of the company is Rs10 billion.
“We are now in talks with banks to tie up a loan of around Rs10 billion. The response so far was good and we hope to conclude a deal by the end of this fiscal year at a reasonable rate of interest,” he said.
A preliminary survey report on the rail link to the airport is before the Railway Board.
The KIAL has also initiated a “Greenbelt Program” planting 251,000 saplings on the airport zone.
The airport is expected to come as a boon for the large number of non-resident Keralites in the districts of Kannur, Kasargode and Wayanad who now have to depend on the small federally-administered Calicut and Mangalore airports having tabletop runways.
Antony to flag off runway construction of Kerala’s new international airport
