The Hindu Business Line : Kerala to go ahead with budget airline proposal

The Cabinet, at its meeting on Wednesday, also decided to take up with the Centre the establishment of an international airport at Kannur, the fourth in the State.

The Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, told newspersons after the Cabinet meeting that the Government had already got a detailed project report on the budget airline. This would be vetted by the Finance Minister and taken up for discussion at the next Cabinet meeting.

The Chief Minister said that the Centre had not rejected the plan for the airline as the proposal had not been formally sent to the Centre. After the approval by the Cabinet, the proposal would be sent to the Centre for clearance, he added.

The State Government would, however, seek certain exemptions from the regulatory guidelines set by the Centre for airlines to fly to foreign destinations. These included stipulations requiring a minimum fleet strength of 20 aircraft and five years of operations in the domestic sector to qualify for flying to overseas destinations.

On the proposal for Kannur airport, the Chief Minister said that it was yet to be decided whether the implementation should be taken up on build-operate-transfer basis or it be modelled on the Cochin International Airport Ltd at Nedumbassery.

For this purpose, a Cabinet sub-committee had been formed comprising the ministers for Finance, Revenue, Tourism, Public Works and Fisheries (who is in charge of airports also). The committee would submit its report to the Cabinet for a decision, which would then be forwarded to the Centre for approval.

He said a project report on the airport had been prepared nearly five years ago and this would be updated now.

Mr Chandy said that Air India had been informed that the Government was willing to hand over 15 acres of land near the international airport at Thiruvananthapuram for the construction of a hangar.

A team from Air India was scheduled to shortly visit the State capital and inspect the land.

The Chief Minister also said that the Government would take up with the Air India team complaints regarding reduction in the number of flights from Thriuvananthapuram to the Gulf region.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page