The Malabar Development Forum has decided to conduct a ‘Save Karipur’ march to Parliament House on December 5 to press for the restoration of wide-bodied aircraft operations at the Calicut International Airport.
The forum will also press for the restoration of Haj flights to Calicut and a uniform airfare structure for the India-Gulf sector to check fleecing of passengers during festival seasons.
Forum president K.M. Basheer pointed out that the airport, which mainly benefited migrant workers in the Gulf and Haj pilgrims, was partially shut down on April 30 last year for the repair of the runway. It was a temporary arrangement, following which wide-bodied aircraft was not allowed to land, and several airlines had shifted their services to Kochi.
However, Basheer said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was in no mood to allow wide-bodied aircraft operations at the airport. He alleged a move by some official lobby to torpedo the restoration of full-fledged operations at the airport. “This ‘lobby’ is raising unrealistic roadblocks. It is insisting that the width of the runway strip be increased to 300 metres from the current 150 metres which is impracticable,” he added. He said a large number of Keralites based in Delhi would join the December 5 protest.
