The first flight will touch down at the Kannur greenfield international airport on February 29 at 9 a.m. and the airport will start commercial operations in September, Minister for Ports K. Babu has said.
Mr. Babu, who made a statement in the Assembly regarding the construction of the airport on Tuesday, said the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) authorities had conducted a technical inspection on January 30 and accorded clearance for the first test flight using a Code-B aircraft. The Defence Ministry has provided the aircraft too.
Work on the airport is expected to be completed in two phases at an estimated cost of Rs.1,892 crore. The first phase is expected to be taken up from 2016-17 to 2025-26 and the second phase from 2026-27 to 2045-46. Facilities would be provided for the arrival of aircraft from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and other Asian countries in the first phase. As per the suggestions from various quarters, the length of the runway has been fixed at 3,400 metres. On taking up the work in the second phase, it has been proposed to enhance the capacity of the passenger terminal, apron, and allied facilities and increase the length of the runway to 4,000 metres.
Of the 2,2000 acres of land proposed to be acquired for the project, 1,278.89 acres had been acquired in two phases and the 785 acres proposed to be taken up in the third phase, 612.12 acres, had already been acquired and the rest would be taken up soon, he said.
