KOTTAYAM: Though the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) gave a feasibility report on the proposed Erumely airport on December 26, 2018, the state government is yet to act on it.
An RTI reply received by rights campaigner K. Govindan Nampoothiri from the KSIDC says the report is under the government's consideration but is silent on its progress.
Reliable sources told DC that the government is yet to take action and the Transport department had recently took the entire file regarding the Erumely airport from the Revenue department however no action is taken so far.
The nodal agency had paid `4.67 core to Louis Berger for the study which was to complete in August last year. But the US-based multinational took three more months.
In August 2017, the state approved the recommendation of a three-member committee headed by the additional chief secretary (revenue) P.H. Kurian to choose the 2,268-acre Cheruvally estate in Kanjirappally taluk for the greenfield airport targeting Sabarimala pilgrims.
The estate, spread across Erumely South and Manimala villages, is still in the possession of the Believers Eastern Church and the government had recently issued an order for receiving taxes from the congregation, establishing its rights to the land.
The RTI document says that the KSIDC had received two qualified bids from Rites- KPMG consortium and Louis Berger. The selection was based on the quality and cost-based selection (QCBS) system and Louis Berger scored the maximum marks in both technical and financial evaluation.
