THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In spite of the repeated failures, and opposition MLAs describing the project as "mysterious", tourism minister A. P. Anil Kumar said that seaplane services would begin soon from Kollam and Vattakayal in Alappuzha.
This also means that the project's ambitions have been scaled down: from four take-off points as originally envisaged, it has come down to two.
The minister said that two firms - Air Grandeur and Seabird Seaplane Services Ltd - had evinced interest in operating the service. The minister said that Rs 11.10 crore has been spent on the project so far.
"This includes Rs 5.88 crore spent on infrastructure development and Rs 2.45 crore spent on the deployment of state industrial security force," the minister said during Question Hour in the Assembly on Monday. The minister reiterated that the project would not hinder fishing or affect fishery resources in the Vembanad Lake.
CPI MLAs termed the project unviable and urged the government to drop it. Drawing the attention of the government to the CAG report which was critical of the project, they blamed the government for excluding fishermen from the discussions on this project. CPI's V S Sunil Kumar called the project unviable and alleged that it was shrouded in mystery.
CPI's P Thilothaman demanded the government to publish the study report. He said that the project would adversely affect the Vembanad Lake. To a question by E Chandrasekharan MLA, the Tourism Minister replied that the project would be implemented only in Kollam and Vattakayal in Alappuzha in Phase I.
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