Air Kerala

If there is one project every Keralite or at least the NRI shall support, it will be the proposal to start an airlines. This is a very viable project and I am sure each NRI will gladly part with a minimum of 10,000 IRS for this project. The money can be collected quickly and if this can be run by the one who managed the Cochin Airport project, V J Kurian,  then it will be too good.

Air India has been royally ignoring / abusing Keralites since many years. The recent one was the cancellation of 168 flights so that these air crafts can be used for Haj purpose in UP! This is when there are flights which barely operate with minimum passengers in other states that could have been used. Air India Express is the one that is used by many since it is a low cost airlines. (We are yet to use this since it was always famous for cancelling at the last moment)

Air India lands NRKs in soup

Dealing a deadly blow to air passengers from Kerala, the Air India and Air India Express are continuing with the cancellation of their flights from the state and diverting them to Uttar Pradesh on the orders of Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajith Singh, to carry Haj pilgrims from there.

Since September 17, the national airliner and its arm have cancelled two dozen schedules to the Gulf alone.

In March when the pilots started their strike, the two airliners had to cancel over 160 schedules almost every month.

 I am sure those going for Haj from this state are unaware of the gross injustice done to many. There would be many Keralites grieving for a lost job, opportunity, a vacation etc. only because of these people.

Only recently, after watching a malayalam movie "Adaminte Makan, Abu", I realized that there are many rules for Haj. In the movie the old couple is trying everything to fulfil their lifelong wish to do Haj but is finds it hard to collect enough funds. This is when their Hindu neighbour offers money; but this was rejected by them since they are not supposed to take money from non-Muslims specially when they go for Haj.

Abu refuses it, saying that it wouldn't be halal and hence could anger God.

In this case, aren't these Haj travellers breaking this very same rule when they use the subsidised air tickets? Is it not from the tax payers and the majority of them being Hindus? Beats me. Hope someone explains this to me one day.

As for Air Kerala, I hope this project sees light. They can have both kind of flights. A low cost airlines similar to the current Air India Express and a normal one. This shall cater the needs of all the NRI's.

We shall only fly!

Yesterday I was listening to this MP from Kerala supporting the Airport at Aranmula. Actually I have nothing against Airports and if it comes to Aranmula it would be easier to catch a flight but are Airports the number one priority for Kerala?

As per this author..

CHENNAI: In Kerala, they have their heads in the clouds and eyes on non-residents. A fifth international airport—and India's first wholly private one—is coming up in a state where no highway is more than half as wide as the National Highways Authority of India's standard minimum of 60 metres.

 No other state in the country has as many international airports. Tiny Kerala, where narrow roads are the norm due to lack of land, clearly bets its future on its vast army of non-resident Keralites whose remittances account for 31% of the state's GDP.

  Fittingly enough, the new airport is coming up at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district, where a toy plane flown into a crowd could well hit a non-resident Indian.

 Anyway let me tell you how this MP, P. J. Kurien justified. He says that every traveller bound to Trivandrum or Cochin airports would be going in two cars! Now I dont know how he came up with this idea. Maybe he was thinking of the escort cars that accompany the ministers? In this case he wants us to imagine 100 travellers and hence 200 cars that commute daily to these airports and the pollution, the fuel consumption etc that this creates. We hear that around 700 acres of land is to be acquired for this airport and this may include paddy fields too.

"The area is a wetland, and a flood-plain region for the seasonal flooding of the Pampa river, and there are paddy fields, too," said NK Sukumaran Nair, general secretary of Pampa Parirakshana Samithy, an environmental organisation leading the agitation against the project.

But our MP asserts that environment would be much better off without these cars on the road. What an idea sirji!

Sometimes I hate myself and it is when these people evoke the same feelings of those who bombed our parliament.

These MP's and their cronies must have already acquired a sizeable property within this area and must be now waiting to book their profit as usual. 

I also read that Reliance holds 15% stake in the company that is going to develop this Airport.

KGS Developers, in which Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital and Reliance Infra hold a 15% stake, expects the first flight to land at Aranmula in less than two years.

If they are really depending on the Gulf NRI's to bring in the traffic then it is good to note that within a span of 20 years, Saudi is ging to be a major oil importer mainly since they guzzle more gas internally and since their oil reserves are running dry. This holds true for other Gulf countries too.

"Our analysis shows that if nothing changes Saudi may have no available oil for export by 2030," said the report, adding that it ran the risk of becoming oil importer.

The country already consumes all its gas production, 9.6 billion cubic feet (ft3) per day of natural gas, all of which is entirely consumed domestically.  

 
And at the rate Kerala is emerging, very soon it shall turn into a concrete jungle. Which tourist would then want to visit Kerala? Even my retirement plans shall go up in smoke in case I live that long! We would only be retiring to another desert. 

I am starting to hate all those who send these idiots to the parliament. It would be only appropriate to copy this tweet;

Define INDIA: A place where the Cartoonist is in jail, and the Cartoons are in Parliament.