A vacant land belonging to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in Thiruvananthapuram will be secured with a compound wall. AAI has decided to construct a wall around 2.5 acres of land belonging to them in the south-eastern side of the Trivandrum International Airport, near the Arattu gate. The vacant plot is currently being used to park trucks belonging to a private cement company and as a playground by the children in the neighbourhood.
The Kerala government had handed over the land to AAI almost 20 years ago. The land is a part of the 628 acres which forms the total area of the Trivandrum International Airport. In 2008-09, the AAI had built a new operational wall, but failed to wall the area owing to local protests.
The government had given an in-principle approval for 120 acres of which 38 acres were handed over for the construction of the new international terminal building (NITB). Though the government promised 82 acres, now it says it can give the AAI only around 20 acres. This has not gone too well with locals and politicians. It’s most vociferous dissent came from Union minister of state for human resource development Shashi Tharoor who voiced his opinion against acquiring anymore land to integrate the domestic and international terminal building.
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