Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Domestic airport by 2012

Flight plan: KGSAAL MD Gigi Georgeaddressing the media at the PathanamthittaPress Club on Friday.

PATHANAMTHITTA: Kerala's fifth domestic airport would come up at Aranmula in two years, said Gigi George, managing director of KGS Aranmula Airport Limited (KGSAAL) that recently got the State government's conditional clearance for setting up an international greenfield airport in Aranmula.

Mr. George, accompanied by K.C. Rajagoapalan, MLA, P.T. Nandakumar, chief operating officer of the company and Abraham Kalamannil, Aranmula Aviation Academy chairman, was addressing a press conference at the Press Club here on Friday.

He said the company had prepared an action plan to begin service from its domestic airport at Aranmula in 2012. However, he said, the non-scheduled operations, including air-taxi service, would begin soon from the 8,000-ft runway at Aranmula.

Mr, George said the proposed airport has already received green signal from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation. The Union Ministry of Environment had also agreed in principle to give clearance for the project, taking Kerala's geographical constraints and its grave development need into consideration.

He said the Emirates group would manage the airport as well as cargo operations. Iyer and Mahesh Co. in Thiruvananthapuram is the architect of the project.

KGS Group and Reliance-Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group would have 70 per cent stake in the company while the Mount Zion Group would have the rest. The company was also planning to give up to 10 per cent stake to the State-sponsored Kinfra, he added. Mr George said Kerala has registered the largest air traffic growth in the country in 2009 and the proposed airport would cater to the aviation needs of Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Idukki and Alappuzha.

He said the Director General of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India had already granted approval for the airport project.

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Domestic airport by 2012

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