The Kerala government has convened an urgent all party meeting on Thursday evening to discuss the Cabinet’s decision to hand over the Thiruvananthapuram international airport to Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) of the Adani Group that won the bid to manage and operate the airport for 50 years.
The meeting to be chaired by Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan will through online at 4 p.m., official sources said. The government will hear the views of the registered political parties on the move to hand over the 88-year-old Airports Authority of India managed premier airport of the State to AEL and will work out the way forward to retain it in the public sector.
The State will have to sign the State Support Agreement to handover the airport currently managed by the AAI to the AEL and the stance of the State in signing the State Support Agreement is crucial. The Government will also have to take a call on the acquisition of 8 hectares of land needed from Vallakkadavu-Vayyamoola area on the side of Parvathy Puthanar for the proposed ₹600-crore integrated terminal on the city side. This along with the pending case in the High Court will figure in the all party meeting.
The all party meeting comes one day after the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retain the airport in the public sector and to run it on the lines of Cochin International Airport and Kannur international airport.
In a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday, Mr. Vijayan has pointed out the decision of the Centre was “unilateral without giving credence to the cogent arguments” put forward by the State government.
