Kerala Floods: Kochi races against time to get its airport up and running

Residents at a Naval relief camp in Kochi, even as operations to restore the state to normalcy continue in the rest of the state. Pic/PTI

Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) staffers are racing against time to get the airport up and running by the August 26 deadline, but airline experts think it might take a few more days. The release of dam water and subsequent flooding of Kochi airport has led to its closure for more than 10 days, causing CIAL an estimated loss of over Rs 220 crore. A senior CIAL official said, "Floodwaters have damaged the entire airport right from the conveyor belt, X-ray scanning machines, stalls to landing lights on the runway. Cleaning and restoration work is still underway."

While there were apprehensions that the solar panels set up to meet the airport's power requirements had got damaged in the flood waters, A C K Nair, director, CIAL, said, "Only a few solar control systems were damaged, and work is on to repair and restore the damaged parts."

A passenger plane lands at INS Garuda naval base in flood-hit Kochi as the airport is shut due to flooding. Pic/PTI

A retaining wall across the airport boundary of 2,600 metres collapsed due to the force of the gushing water. Nearly 800 LED lights installed across the runway were underwater and some of these are damaged and need to be replaced. Each light has to be removed and checked before refitting them, which is time consuming.

On insurance coverage, a CIAL spokesperson said, "We have insurance for the estimated damages, but it depends on the assessment by the insurance company; the final sanction will be a wait-and-watch situation. At present, CIAL is bearing the cleaning and reconstruction cost."

He added, "The reconstruction work has already been started. Parallel to this, we are erecting ready-to-use structures as per security norms to meet the deadline. CIAL is rendering terminal management services to the Navy airport from where limited domestic operations have started. More airlines are joining us for domestic operations from there."

Meanwhile, UAE has announced financial aid of Rs 700 crore to Kerala, which was confirmed by a senior official from the Kerala CM's office. The officer said, "We have a special relationship with the UAE and are grateful to them. However, we are still too far from the sum required to get Kerala back on its feet."

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