The draft master plan-2040 for Thiruvananthapuram city has included a proposal for a new airport. The plan set to be presented in the corporation council, pitches the new airport near the outer ring road in the city's border and suggests land acquisition through land pooling. It also proposes an integrated terminal for domestic and international services as part of the development of the existing airport.
The proposal assumes significance considering the issues related to land acquisition for the present airport and the coastal erosion at Shanghumugham beach in the last two- three years. The pitch for a new airport also marks a transition from a proposal under the capital region development project (CRDP)-II to construct a runway at sea parallel to Shanghumugham beach near the existing airport.
As part of CRDP-II, the proposal was to expand the existing airport by constructing a new runway offshore with connectivity to existing runway through a new taxi bay. The runway was proposed on land reclaimed from the sea and it was expected to address issues associated with land acquisition. However, over the last two-three years, coastal stretches in the district have been battered by strong waves and even the Shanghumugham Airport Road had to be closed down after a significant portion of the beach was lost.
Senior architect N Mahesh, who had earlier worked on a proposal for a new airport along with Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, welcomed the proposal. “A new airport is an urgent requirement for Trivandrum. At present, we have less than 4 million passengers, but passenger traffic increases by 12-13% every year. The terminal area of the present airport is saturated. There will be a quantum jump in passenger volume in the next five-six years. We have to plan for 15 million passengers per year at that time. It is estimated that a minimum of 1,400-1,500 acres are required for the airport alone,” said N Mahesh.
Presently, the airport runs under many constraints. “As per DGCA rules, the airport needs to have a 163m parallel taxiway and basic strip with a perimeter road for the Runway End Safety Area (RESA) requirements from the central line of the runway on either side. Presently the airport is functioning on deemed temporary exemption. If the exemption is not extended or requirements not complied with, our airport will not be permitted to handle wide-bodied flights, said Raghuchandra Nair, Chairman, airport users consultative committee and member of advisory committee.
