The State government has snapped all its links with the proposal for setting up a greenfield airport at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district by withdrawing the in-principle clearance it had given for the project.
The decision to wash its hands of the controversy-ridden project was taken by the State Cabinet at its weekly meeting here on Wednesday. The Cabinet also decided to scrap all the orders the government had issued in relation to the airport project.
From the beginning, the project was ridden by controversies. Mooted in 2009, the project had received in-principle clearance on February 2, 2010, which also declared Aranmula and surrounding areas as an industrial area. The project hit the first stumbling block when environmental activists, religious groups, and political parties launched an agitation against it.
Even as the agitation continued to snowball, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests gave their nod for the project. However, the National Green Tribunal cancelled the environmental clearance on May 28, 2014, and the Defence Ministry withdrew its clearance on May 8, 2015.
