The Calicut International Airport Development Society (CIADS) has urged the State government to initiate steps to acquire the required land for the development of Kozhikode airport.
The office-bearers of CIADS said here that lack of basic facilities and inadequate number of flights to foreign destinations, especially Gulf countries, had been forcing the passengers from here to head for Kochi and other airports. The main problem faced by Kozhikode airport is the non-availability adequate space.
The State government has been unable to acquire 157 acres of land as promised by it and this has resulted in the development of the airport coming to a standstill. Though successive governments had been making announcements to the effect, they remained only on paper, CIADS said.
While there are 15 and 14 foreign flights from Kochi and Thriuvananthapuram airports respectively, Kozhikode airport, which boasts maximum number of Gulf passengers from the State, has only eight foreign flights. The government seemed to be not having as much interest in the development of Kozhikode airport as in the case of the other two airports, the society lamented.
Under the current circumstances, there is urgent need for acquiring 157 acres of land under fast-track mechanism after excluding the 25 acres that has been classified as thickly populated. This would facilitate construction of a new terminal on the southern side of the runway, aircraft parking bays on both sides of the runway, an aircraft maintenance unit and a new technical block, among other things, CIADS noted.
It said that the authorities concerned should initiate steps on a war-footing to address the problems faced by the Kozhikode airport taking a leaf out of the Mangalore airport disaster. If there were no steps in this direction, it would be forced to adopt strong measures in association with other organisations, CIADS warned.