International Airport at at Kannur - Is it necessary for our development ??

Before expressing my views about the oncoming “State’s prestigious Greenfield Airport project, named ‘KANNUR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT”, please accept my Greetings and Red Salute to the Well-wishers of Kannur Airport and respected citizens of Kannur district.

As all we know, Kannur is always on limelight with lots of hottest issues regarding Culture, Economy and Politics of this region. To ascertain the importance of Kannur, proposal for an International airport also added as a spicy issue of day-to-day discussion on Medias and in Common Public.

The promoters claiming various advantages and conveniences of this Airport which, they believes, will be the catalyst for the development to this region. It aims to provide the service to 13% of Kannur expatriate community, tap the vast tourism potential, convenience for the student tourists and research scholars particularly from European countries and explore the possibilities of developments in IT field etc.

It’s the time to think a moment about the developments contributed by other three international airports of Kerala, i.e. Kozhikkod(CCJ), Kochi(COK) and Thiruvananthapuram (TVM). If these airports could have provided the expected developments, I should have undoubtedly accepted the requirement of airports in each and every district capitals of Kerala. As per my knowledge both CCJ and TVM airports are struggling for their developments and always looking for the aid from the State and Central governments. If the arrival of COK has grabbed the importance of TVM, introduction of new Kannur airport will definitely lead to the struggle for existence to both Kannur and CCJ.

Other concerns against the claim of promoters:
We cannot not expect all the 13% of the expatriate population of Kannur to move thru this new airport. Even after the existing of three international airports, few Keralites are still utilizing the facilities of Mumbai Airport for their arrival and departure.

Tap the vast tourism potential: Absence of an international airport will not be a concern for a real tourist and no one can expect a boom in the income from the tourists. Before building an airport, think about the infrastructural facilities which we are offering for our guests. This so called tourists can utilized the luxury facilities at other three international airports of Kerala.

If we consider about the foreign students and IT industry, it needs better investments in its respective fields by the concerned authorities. We have the examples of IT industry development, where Government has invested lots of money for various IT parks with international standards and had good business partnerships with various firms. Investors and IT companies of Infopark and Technopark are mostly attracted with the better Connectivity and Cheap and skilled manpower of Kerala, not the existence of an international airport.

Then what we really need??

People from various areas of community has expressed their views on the development as:
According to the latest World Bank Report 2009, they listed one of our concerns as Infrastructure backwardness or slow growth in this sector:

"India’s rapidly growing economy has been placing huge demands on power supply, roads, railways, ports and transportation systems. But, infrastructure bottlenecks have been eroding the country’s competitiveness. Increases in power generation during the Tenth Plan period fell short of target; when the economy was growing at a rapid 8% a year, power supply grew at only 4%. And, although the national highway network doubled in size between 1997 and 2007 – almost 35,000 kms were added during this period – soaring demand has far outstripped supply. Urban infrastructure is a severe constraint to the expansion of key centers of growth, while weaknesses in basic rural infrastructure—from roads to electrification—have constrained the growth of the rural economy".

Speedy implementation of infrastructure developmental projects is the need of the hour for Kerala to surmount the negative effects of the current economic slowdown and to create more jobs, says a business consultant.
Mr. S.D. Shibulal, COO, Infosys Technologies : The State needs to drastically improve the quality of IT education, Mr Shibulal said, saying that currently only 10 to 15 per cent of the 25,000 engineering graduates it produces annually is employable
Requirement of rapid social changes for economic and lifestyle development : Kerala has the highest rate of suicide in the country. It has remained consistently high for several years, and been about three times the national average Kerala has the highest rate of suicide in the country. The suicide proneness among the people of Kerala is also to be seen in the context of the high rate of crimes in the state, mounting divorce statistics, chart-busting graphs of sale of alcohol etc.

Comments and views are appreciated..