Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala):After the Cabinet approved the proposal for leasing out Thiruvananthapuram airport through Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing the inability of the state government to offer co-operation in this regard and urged his intervention "so that the decision is reconsidered."
"In view of the unilateral decision taken by the Government of India without giving credence to the cogent arguments put forward by the State Government, it will be difficult for us to offer co-operation to the implementation of the decision, which is against the wishes of the people of the State," read the letter by Vijayan.
"I request your goodself to intervene at this stage so that the decision taken now is reconsidered," he stated.
The Chief Minister said that the Union Cabinet has decided to hand over the management and operation of Trivandrum International Airport to a private bidder ignoring the repeated requests of the Government of Kerala for entrusting the same to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in which State Government is the major stakeholder.
He said that the present decision is in contravention to the assurance given by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, in 2003.
"The assurance was that as and when induction of a private player is considered, the Government of India would factor in the contributions made by the State Government to the development of the Trivandrum Airport. There was further assurance in this regard when we had a personal meeting in New Delhi," read the letter.
The State Government had earlier transferred 23.57 acres to the Airport Authority of India, free of cost for construction of the international terminal, subject to the condition that the value of the land would be reflected as Government of Kerala's share capital in an SPV which would be set up, he said.