Supreme Court clips Aranmula airport’s wings

Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI,  
The Hindu, November 22, 2014 

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to let the proposed Aranmula International Airport take off in Kerala, dismissing a petition filed by the project promoters challenging the cancellation of its environmental clearance by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

In a short hearing, a Green Bench led by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu found no merit in the contentions of the promoters, M/s K.G.S. Aranmula International Airport Ltd., that the project site “is not a wetland but only a paddy land which is now waterlogged, degraded, and unfit for paddy cultivation.”

The proposed airport is located about 110 km from Thiruvananthapuram and 80 km from the Sabarimala temple.

The Environment Ministry had cleared the project for the construction of a “greenfield” airport in November 2013. But the South Zone Bench of the tribunal had cancelled the clearance in May 2014. The tribunal had restrained the KGS group from carrying out any construction activities or other activities on the site.

It had also recorded that the consultant, who prepared the environment impact assessment report on the airport, was not competent. Further, it held that the public hearing conducted for the project was in violation of the mandatory provisions of the EIA notification of 2006.

In their petition, arraigning the Aranmula Village Action Council and the Kerala government among others, the KGS group blamed a sustained local rebellion by “meddlesome interlopers” as a reason for the project’s inability to take flight. This has come in the way of “lakhs of people” getting jobs and the coming of a world-class airport. It had countered the version of the council that the project violated the provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wetland Act, 2008, Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963, Environment Protection Act, 1986, and Land Acquisition Act.

The villagers had put up a strong resistance to the project, saying that it obstructed their local heritage, and especially the sanctity of the famous Aranmula Parthasarathy temple.