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Mangaluru (The Hindu): Six years after the air crash that claimed 158 lives, the runway is yet to get extended
It is six years now that Mangaluru witnessed the third worst air crash in India in which 158 people were charred to death.
Yet, the promised expansion of the Mangaluru International Airport and the extension of its runway is yet to happen, primarily due to delay in land acquisition.
While the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has already given its concurrence for the expansion that includes increasing the length of the runway from 4,500 ft. to about 8,000 ft., the project has not taken off so far because of delay in acquiring about 289 acres sought by the AAI.
At least 190 acres of land to be acquired at a cost of Rs. 121 crore would have helped the authority extend the runway to about 7,000 ft. empowering MIA to handle larger aircrafts.
Public representatives from the district have often been demanding immediate commencement of the extension project. Otherwise, MIA, which is being majorly patronised by air travellers from northern Kerala, would lose out to the new airport which has become functional at Kannur, they fear.
The government, though, had said that Rs. 34 crore was set apart for land acquisition purpose but has not moved forward to acquire the land required for the extension.
Soon after the crash in 2010, the then Union Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel had announced that the runway would be extended to about 8,000 to 9,000 ft to handle large carriers.
The AAI has said that if the government provides the land, it would undertake the entire expansion project on its own, that could cost about Rs. 1,120 crore. The authority requires at least five years to complete the expansion project once the land is handed over, said a senior official of AAI.
With Airports Authority of India and Air India being allegedly indifferent to build a memorial for the May 21, 2010, Mangaluru air crash victims in the city, the district administration has asked Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) to build one.
The memorial would come up on about half-an-acre of land belonging to New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) on which the Trust has already developed a Park, said Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim in a statement here on Saturday. The Park would be named 22/5 Park and a memorial service would be held there at 10.30 am on Sunday, he added.
Mr. Ibrahim thanked NMPT for developing the Park and said it would be fully ready in about three months and be opened for public thereafter.
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