Demand for new international airport at Thiruvambadi

KOZHIKODE:

Malabar Development Council

(MDC) and

Malabar International Airport Committee

(MIAC) have urged the central and state governments to take steps for setting up an international airport at Thiruvambadi in the wake of uncertainities clouding the development and expansion of

Karipur airport

.

The office bearers of the two committees said at a press conference here on Friday that opposition from local residents have made acquisition of the around 485 acres of land needed for the expansion of the Karipur airport extremely difficult, blightening the changes of lifting the existing ban on operation of wide- bodied aircrafts at the airport by the

Airport Authority of India

(AAI) citing runway safety concerns.

MDC president, C E Chakkunny said that around 1800 acre of land belonging to the Thiruvambadi estate was available for setting up the new airport. He added that the land can be acquired without displacing a single family.

A preliminiary survey conducted by a team of experts headed by former director of Karipur airport C Vijayakumar had found that the land at Thiruvambadi was suitable for setting up of airport. "The land owners are willing to give their land for the project and there are private investors who are ready to invest in the project," the office bearers of MIAC said.

The AAI had suspended operations of wide- bodied aircrafts (Code- E) from the Karipur airport from May 1, 2015 onwards citing runway safety concerns and pointing out that the airport which has a runway length of 2850 metre is designed for operation of only narrow bodied (Code- D) aircrafts. The AAI have been proposing that the runway be expanded to 3627 metres.