Get clearances, go ahead: Kerala CM on Aranmula airport project

The proposed Rs.2,000-crore KGS Aranmula international airport project in Kerala can go ahead if its promoters get the required environment clearance, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said Friday.

The proposed project suffered a huge setback Wednesday when a tribunal cancelled its environment clearance.

"The state government is not going for an appeal against the verdict but if the promoters go ahead and get all the needed environment clearances then we will not stop it," Chandy told reporters here.

After a legal battle between the airport's promoters and five organisations based in Aranmula, the Chennai bench of the National Green Tribunal ruled that the agency which conducted the study was not competent to give an environment clearance for the airport.

The airport complex, said to be the first private international airport in the country, is based in Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district in an area of 700 acres.

The KGS Aranmula International Airport Company has 500 acres in its possession.

The proposed airport is located about 110 km from the state capital and 30 km from the famed Sabarimala temple.

In November last year, managing director of the proposed airport Gigi George said all the required sanctions for the airport came from the Achuthanandan-led Left government in March 2011.

However, the KGS group said it will take the legal route against the verdict.