MALAPPURAM: The master plan for the expansion of the Calicut International Airport in Karippur has gone through a sea change by compromising the estimated land requirement. The airport has proposed significant expansion of the runway along with meeting all the mandatory safety requirements by acquiring only 96 acres of land instead of 458 acres as per the earlier master plan which had become a stumbling block for more than a decade. This would bring down the project cost from Rs 4000 crore to below Rs 1000 crore. The airport authorities and experts have completed a safety assessment study as per the revised master plan which would soon be submitted to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for approval.
Land acquisition was the major hurdle in the expansion of the Karipur airport for long. The repeated attempts to acquire land remained stuck due to stiff resistance from local land owners. In this context, the authorities decided to make use of maximum available land with the airport and acquiring minimum land. The AAI had given its nod to go ahead with this plan and asked for submission of the safety assessment report. This assessment has been completed.
As per the new proposal, the runway length will be expanded to 3500 metres from the current 2850 meter. The 75 metre runway strips on each side of the runway will be maintained as such and Runway End Safety Area (RESA) expanded to 240 metre. "All this can be done by acquiring only 96 acres of land. Though it may take five to seven more years to complete the expansion as per the revised plan, this is the most practical development plan in terms of project cost and land acquisition," a source close to the development said. This would enable the airport to operate all types of bigger aircraft which in turn would help it regain lost market share, he said.
