Aluva :

Armed with its new brand identity and a slew of development projects, CIAL will be aiming for the stars in 2015 as one of the most successful PPP ventures in the state. The profit for the first half of the financial year 2014-2015 clocked at `69 crore, as compared to `63 crore for the same period the previous year. The new international terminal is all set to be completed by December 2015. However, the construction of 8 Small Hydro Electric Power Plants (SHEP) is proceeding ahead of schedule and will enable the airport to become power neutral, officials noted.

Passenger safety was a slogan of paramount importance in 2014-2015, with the introduction of almost `12 crore worth of Canadian robotic equipments such as Threat Containment vessels and Remote Mobile Investigator (RMI-9WT) robots. Commonly used in the West and American Police force, the robots are capable of remotely handling the Improvised Explosive Devices(IED), hazardous chemicals, radioactive materials, fire fighting, hostage and other  situations. Apart from these, the airport has also adapted bomb inhibitors, real time X-ray viewing systems, deep search metal detectors and non-linear junction detectors which are able to discover and disarm an entire spectrum of explosive devices, into its safety repertoire. “Rather than merely purchasing the new security devices, we were able to integrate it with the existing safety measures flawlessly. In the few instances of hoax threats in the year, the airport security ran flawlessly without causing discomfort to the passengers in any way,” airport officials noted.

Gold smuggling

With the sheen of the yellow metal increasing manifold, the customs officials at CIAL were kept busy throughout the year confiscating gold from hordes of smugglers, who baffled officials with their ingenuity. Going by  official records, almost 82 cases were recorded until November 2015 and almost 55.71 kg gold worth `14.04 crore was confiscated. Customs officials noted that the number of smuggling cases have gone down.

According to officials, the smugglers have become imaginative. They are resorting to tricks such as smuggling gold by hiding them in the toilet near the immigration wing. As international flights are subjected to through checks, some of the smugglers have resorted to the new modus operandi of disembarking international flights at other airports and using a connecting domestic flight to reach their destination. Customs officials said that the smugglers even embarked from countries like Malaysia and Singapore to throw the officials off the track. “The smugglers usually come in via the gulf route,” officials noted.

CSR activity

As a part of its CSR activities, CIAL is actively involved in the proposed Jalanidhi scheme in Nedumbassery, Kanjoor and Sreemoolanagaram panchayats. Under this facility drinking water facilities will be provided to all the families in the three panchayats. CIAL MD V J Kurien had announced that he was prepared to meet the cost of water connections to all BPL families.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Vaisakh E Hari / December 30th, 2014