Kerala’s United Democratic Front (UDF) government will cross another milestone in development when the construction the southern Indian state’s fourth international airport begins in its northern city of Kannur this week.
The board of directors of the Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract to Larson & Tubro Limited last week on the condition that work should begin in two weeks and completed in 24 months.
The L&T, which built the Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore airports, will construct the basic infrastructure like the runway, taxiway, apron, ancillary buildings for communication, navigation and surveillance facilities, substations, fire stations, boundary wall and the main approach road to the airport.
The authorities in the southern Indian state are waiting for the availability of Defense Minister AK Antony to formally launch the work on the long-pending project at Moorkanparamba, some 25 km away from the city center.
A brainchild of the late chief minister EK Nayanar, who mooted the idea nearly two decades back, the Kannur airport is one of the major infrastructure initiatives of the UDF government after Kochi Metro, which is fast nearing completion.
Both are expected to go operational by the end of 2015. The officials of KGS Aranmula International Airport Limited said India’s first private airport coming up min central Kerala will also start work soon and go operational by the end of 2015.
Kerala’s two new airports to go operational before 2016
