KOCHI
The KGS Aranmula airport, billed to be the country’s first private international airport coming up at Aranmula, 75 km from the Sabarimala temple, has hit the air pocket once again.
More than a half of Kerala legislators, including six of the ruling United Democratic Front, have petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop the controversial airport in its tracks.
In a memorandum, 72 of Kerala’s 141 MLAs complained that the airport, being built by the Chennai-based KGS group and supported by the UDF Government, would damage the environment, destruct vast stretches of wetland, and take the gloss off the heritage village of Aranmula, home to the famed Parthasarathy Temple.
K. Muraleedharan, son of the late Congress strongman K. Karunakaran, has said he would be the “73{+r}{+d} MLA” to add muscle to the demand for scrapping the airport project, though he had not signed the petition. Muraleedharan is now a key member of a faction in the Congress that is pitted against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s faction.
Full report here Business Line
