Kerala is gearing up for a new international airport at Kannur. With this, the proposal for having an airport in northern Kerala appears to have vivified after languishing for around four years. The greenfield airport will be the fourth in the state after Kochi, capital city Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode (Calicut).
Speaking to Projectmonitor over phone, a senior official of nodal agency Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) said that empowered with Central and state clearances, pre-project work had gained momentum. The agency has already initiated work for selecting technical, financial and legal consultants. "We hope to finalise consultants by the first week of January next year," he said.
The consultants, for whom expressions of interest have been invited, will be responsible for structuring the project on PPP basis, including selection of private developer, drafting concession agreement etc. By current thinking, Kinfra will hold 26 per cent equity in the special purpose vehicle to be formed to develop the airport. The private developer will hold majority equity stake. The airport will come up on the lines of the new generation greenfield airports in Bangalore.
It is interesting to note that Kannur airport will be amongst the few international airports in India where the Airports Authority of India is not envisaged to have equity partnership. The Kinfra official, however, maintained that AAI's equity participation was yet undecided. An industry expert said that even if AAI did not have equity stake in the airport, which is an emerging trend for greenfield airports like the proposed Khushinagar airport in Uttar Pradesh, the Central agency would still be responsible for air traffic control operations and for issuing aeronautical-related clearances.
Regarding land acquisition, the Kinfra official said that the project would require around 2,000 acres that have been identified. Around 100 acres were in ready possession, he noted, adding that the entire land acquisition was targeted for completion by mid-January 2009.
The airport is expected to handle at least 1 million passengers per year, the Kinfra spokesperson said. The Union Cabinet cleared the Kannur airport project, estimated to cost around Rs 930 crore, in January this year. The Cabinet clearance was required as the airport is within the 150-km radius from the existing airports - 80 km from Kozhikode airport in Kerala and 125 km from Mangalore airport in Karnataka. The Kerala state cabinet approved the airport in June.
Kannur is the fourth largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, and is also a tourist destination. In 2006, hospitality player Leela Group, in association with Changi Airports of Singapore, had offered to set up an airport at Kannur, a proposal that did not see the light of day.
It is noteworthy that for Kerala, this becomes the second airport with majority private participation. Cochin International Airport is India's first airport to be developed entirely with private and state government financing, and is outside management control of AAI. |