Kerala - Palakkad   

60 acres identified for airport project

PALAKKAD: The district administration has identified 60 acres of land at Yakkara in Palakkad town to set up a proposed mini-airport that will connect the district headquarters with international airports and major cities in the State.

District Collector K.V. Mohan Kumar told The Hindu that he had sent the details of the land to the State government on Friday.

Already 55 acres of land acquired by the government for Indian Telephone Industry (ITI) years ago is available for the airport project.

For expansion

Another five acres adjacent to it is available at Kannadi-II village, he said.

More land is available for future expansion in the Kodumbu village.

The Collector said the minimum land required for the mini-airport was 40 acres as specified by the Civil Aviation Department.

The mini-airport project is a new scheme of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation aimed at providing infrastructure for air connectivity, linking all the major district headquarters of the State where air traffic facility is not available now, within a period of 10 years.

These mini-airports are meant to operate Air Transport Rack (ATR) flights of 65-75 seats and helicopter taxi services.

Short haul flights

These short haul regional airliners could connect the main cities to the State capital and the international airports of Kochi, Karipur and Thiruvanathapuram, it is said.

The Union government's proposal was to start mini-airports for intra-district connectivity in Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Palakkad, Kochi, Idukki and Thiruvanathapuram.

Benefits

This will benefit both domestic the international travellers as they can get easy connectivity from any part of the State to the international airports. Intra-district connectivity will also be a big boon to tourism in Kerala.

In Palakkad, it will help to get more tourists to visit tourist centres such as Nelliampathy, Parambikulam, Malampuzha, Mangalam Dam, Kanjirapuzha and Silent Valley.

In fact, the District Tourism Promotion Council had planned a `green triangle nature study tourism' connecting Nelliampathy, Parambikulam and Silent Valley.

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