Kottayam: A new survey has been initiated to identify a longer stretch of land to build the runway for the proposed Sabarimala Airport at Cheruvally Estate in the Kottayam district of Kerala.
The move follows a recent meeting convened by V Thulasidas, special officer for the airport project, which expressed doubts over the 2.7-km-long stretch suggested for the runway in the preliminary report for the project.
Participants at the meeting pointed out that the runways at Kochi Airport in Nedumbassery and the Thiruvananthapuram Airport were 3.4 km long.
The Kannur Airport’s runway has a length of 3.05 km which can be extended up to 4 km.
It was felt that constructing an airport with a 2.7-km-long runway would affect the future development of Sabarimala Airport. Moreover, obtaining sanctions from the Central Government for the airport project could be difficult if the runway length was 2.7 km, the participants said.
Incidentally, an application submitted by Kerala for setting up the Sabarimala Airport was rejected a few months ago by the Union Civil Aviation Ministry citing technical reasons.
“We have instructed the Chennai-based agency GEOID to carry out an OLS (Obstacle Limitation Surface) Survey in Cheruvally Estate to identify two or three stretches of land having a length of at least 3.5 km for the runway,” said Thulasidas.
GEOID was given the task by Louis Berger, the consultancy for the airport project. The OLS Survey examines whether there are any obstructions for aircraft to land and take off on a stretch of land. GEOID has carried out OLS Surveys for various airports in India.
Earlier, a drone survey by Louis Berger had suggested the 2.7-km-long estate land for the runway.
