Kerala’s fourth international airport at Kannur would open in December 2015, the State’s Excise and Shipping Minister K Babu, who is also in charge of the airport project, said on July 13. Seven companies have been shortlisted in the pre-qualification bid for building the airport, which is coming up in an area of around 2,000 acres and is expected to cost Rs 1,700 crore.
The airport is planned to serve close to 1.5 million passengers it would handle 86,000 tonne of cargo a year.
The technical bid would be submitted by these selected firms and after elimination, the financial bid would be asked for and we expect to ink the work agreement with the selected company in September, Babu said. The work will begin in October and the first aircraft will touch down in December 2015, hea added. Now Kerala has three international airports at Kozhikode, Kochi and the State capital Thiruvananthapuram.
Visualised first in 1996 by the then chief minister EK Nayanar, who hails from the northern district of Kannur, successive governments had approved the project. In 2010, the VS Achuthanandan government had laid the foundation stone for the airport. At the moment work is progressing in levelling the land as it requires cutting of the earth at some places and filling of the land in other places.
This itself will cost Rs 400 crore, Babu, who is monitoring the progress on a day-to-day basis, said. The proposed airport will come as a boon for the large number of non-resident Keralites in the districts of Kannur and Kasargode who now have to travel to either Kozhikode or Mangalore.
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