Kerala - Kozhikode   

Calicut airport to function round the clock by August

Staff Reporter

Plea to complete development works on schedule

MAKING A POINT: B. Syed Mohammed, Commissioner, Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax, Calicut, inaugurating a discussion on `The prospects of Calicut International Airport — the Gate way to Malabar,' organised by the Calicut Chamber of Comme rce and Industry in Kozhikode on Wednesday. Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

Kozhikode: By August, the Calicut International Airport at Karipur will have round-the-clock facility for landing, take-off and refuelling service of aircraft.

R. Veeraswamy, airport director, announced this at a discussion programme on `The prospects of Calicut International Airport — the gateway of Malabar,' organised by the Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Wednesday.

As of now, the functioning of airport is between 5.30 a.m. and 10.30 p.m. It operates at other times in case of delay in normal schedules and service of special flights during the Haj season. Night landing facility at the airport began more than a year ago.

Mr. Veeraswamy said a 24-hour station would start functioning with the completion of the new terminal in July. Commissioner for Central Excise Customs and Service Tax B. Syed Mohammed inaugurated the discussion programme.

Sunil Deshmukh, manager, Air-India; Selva Girija, Indian Airlines; M. Sreekumar, deputy general manager, Calicut Air Cargo Complex and Afsal Abdul Rasheed, manager, Srilankan Airlines, were present.

Meanwhile, the Calicut Airport Advisory Committee, which met on Tuesday, has decided to ask the Union Government to complete the development works as per schedule in order to enable foreign airlines to begin operations from the Calicut airport. It also asked the Airport Director to initiate steps to acquire more land for the future development of the airport. The meeting hailed the decision of the Centre to accord international status to the airport.

Mr. Veeraswamy, who participated in the meeting, said additional parking area had been developed at the airport and multi-level parking was also being planned at a later stage. Parking charges were not applicable in respect of vehicles coming to drop passengers at the airport, he said. He said the Regional Transport Officer at Malappuram had informed him that permits would be issued to parties willing to operate bus services to the airport. The meeting decided to ask private bus operators to conduct services to and from the airport.

The committee expressed satisfaction over the commencing of work for widening the approach road from airport to Kolathur. It requested the airport director and the Revenue Divisional Officer of Tirur to follow up the matter regarding provision of street lighting.

T.K. Hamsa, MP, chaired the meeting. Tirur RDO Narayanan Kutty and other members, P.V. Chandran, K.T. Raghunath, C.E. Chakkunny, C.P. Kunhimohammed, Abbas Ali, O.P. Ibrahim, Sunil Deshmukh, Selva Girija, T.K. Suresh, N. Perumallu, Chief Airport Security Officer, and senior officials of Airports Authority of India attended the meeting.

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