Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala cabinet on Wednesday gave in-principle approval for the setting up of an airport near the pilgrimage centre at Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta district.
The greenfield airport is meant to serve millions of pilgrims who gather at the temple shrine every year, mostly during the peak pilgrimage season that stretches from November to mid-January.
An airport in the area is also beneficial for tens of thousands of local residents who are presently based abroad, many of them in the Middle East.
The state cabinet has decided to entrust the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation to conduct a preliminary study about the airport. There had been reports that the airport would be set up at Erumely, the gateway point to the Sabarimala pilgrimage, but the state cabinet had not made a mention about the exact location of the proposed airport.
A long-standing earlier proposal to establish an airport at Aranmula ran into rough weather after the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India Marxist raised opposition to the project that was proposed by the Chennai-based KGS group.
Meanwhile, Kerala’s fourth international airport is gearing up for a launch at Kannur in September this year. Over 80 per cent of the works related to the aviation aspects of the airport and the integrated terminal building have been completed. The project is being established in a public-private partnership mode.
Kerala’s three existing airports are at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode, and the lack of air connectivity for residents of Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Idukki districts has led to demands for an airport in one of these districts. The Sabarimala airport is seen as a project that will meet this requirement.
