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Fresh impetus for Thiruvananthapuram airport development

It will decongest the rush at the terminal during the peak hours ( 3 am to 6 am) and facilitates more flights during the time.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) for acquiring 18 acres of land for Thiruvananthapuram airport has commenced, the long-pending expansion plans of the Thiruvananthapuram international airport has got fresh impetus. The Airport Authority of India has already begun preliminary steps for expanding the existing 33,0000 square metre international terminal by another 55,000 square metre, making it an integrated terminal for domestic and international services.

It will decongest the rush at the terminal during the peak hours ( 3 am to 6 am) and facilitates more flights during the time. Airport director George G Tharakan said that without expansion of the terminal building, it was almost impossible to allow more flights during peak hours. It is because of the convenience of connection flights to US and Europe that most flights to Gulf sectors prefer this time frame.

“At present around 12 flights are operating between 3 am and 6 am. Our runway has the capacity to handle even more than double the number of flights during this period. But the existing international terminal building can only handle passengers of three or four flights per hour. Hence the expansion of the terminal is very crucial for further expansion of the Thiruvananthapuram airport,” said Mr. Tharakan.

Loyola College of Social Sciences vice principal Sabu P Thomas, who is heading the SIA team, said that the SIA report would be submitted to the government by December. Recommendations on compensation and rehabilitation to the evictees would be mentioned in the study. Government sources said that the study would look into various aspects including how the livelihood of the families would be affected with the eviction and what were the prospects of the airport with the expansion. “Since the airport expansion is a matter being closely supervised by the Chief Minister himself, we hope that there will not be delays in taking over the land once the SIA report is received,” a revenue department official said.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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