THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the Sabarimala airport project is on the top of the priority projects of the government and queries raised by the Centre in this regard are being examined.
SC, ST welfare and parliamentary affairs minister K Radhakrishnan who read out the reply on behalf of the CM to a calling attention motion in this regard by MLA N Jayaraj, said that the government is going ahead with land acquisition for the project.
“The techno-economic feasibility and social impact assessment reports that were conducted by Louis Berger Consulting Private Limited, have been submitted to the Centre. Further details in this regard sought by the Union civil aviation ministry are being prepared,” he said.
The project was cleared by the state government in 2017 itself. The government has also appointed Kerala state industrial development corporation (KSIDC) as the nodal agency for implementing the project. After the reports were submitted by the state to the civil aviation ministry, it had raised certain queries regarding the project.
Quoting the observations of the director general of civil aviation (DGCA), the civil aviation ministry had sought certain clarifications from the government while considering the application for project clearance. The clearance from the defence ministry is expected soon as Indian Air Force (IAF) has conveyed that it has no objection in granting site clearance.
