Centre cancels permission for Aranmula airport

NEW DELHI: Dealing a major blow to Kerala government’s Aranmula airport dream, the Central government has cancelled the permission for the project. Union Aviation Ministry on Wednesday officially passed on this information to project developers KGS Group.

Though the Union government had earlier given the permission for the airport project, the National Green Tribunal scrubbed the permission following a petition filed by Aranmula heritage protection committee. After that, the Supreme Court also upheld the Green Tribunal’s order and the Union Defence ministry too cancelled the permission.

The plan was to build the airport at a cost of Rs 2000 crore and the permission was received for conducting the environmental impact study. The Green Tribunal, however, cancelled the permission, citing the reason that the environmental impact study was not conducted by a competent authority.

After this, a new company approached the Central government with a new application in April but then the Central government took the stand that permission could not be granted as the Supreme Court and Defence Ministry had denied the permission.  

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