State-of-the-art airport in Cochin

NOT A FLIGHT OF FANCY: The Cochin International Airport is all set to change the way one looks at civil aviation.

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Cochin: There is good news for travellers who put up with the daily hassles of international airports in India. The Cochin International Airport, the country's first joint public-private venture in civil aviation, is close to setting a benchmark.

The airport will soon emerge as India's first airport township with an investment of just Rs 300 crore.

“The government is there to give the policy support. The delays of red-tapism and bureaucratic functioning are not here. So, decisions are taken quickly. This is something which you won’t find in any other airport in the country,” MD, Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), S Bharath says.

Ten years down the line, the airport will have 18 different sub-projects including, a 6.4 crore IT park, a golf course, a perishable cargo unit, half a dozen five-star hotels and an aviation academy spread out over 1,300 acres of land.

And to top it all, there's going to be a state-of-the-art maintenance and hanger unit exclusively for Airbus 380.

This airport township will be funded by Kerala NRIs, the state government and other financial institutions. Not only will this be the first of its kind in the country, the project will also have a huge employment potential.

“The idea is to capitalise on Kerala's strengths. Employment generation is the key and with the state having such a huge human resource potential it will not be a problem. Instead of people going all the way to the Gulf to find a job let’s have viable employment here,” Bharath says.

The CIAL success story has already become a case study for professionals at the Harvard School of Economics. The Sri Lankan government has also approached CIAL to replicate the Cochin model for them.

Having made a huge successful economic model, the CIAL with its new value added services hopes to make this airport the gateway to Kerala. With plans for an airport township already in place, the Cochin International Airport is all set to change the way one looks at civil aviation in the country.