Corporate group chief protests over Kerala CM’s remark. Leela Group chairman Captain Krishnan Nair has strongly protested Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan’s statement that no ‘big shark’ like him would be allowed to hijack the Kannur international airport project. This has come even as the CM’s office clarified that all applicants would get shares in it provided they applied for a minimum of 2001 shares with a face value of Rs 100. “He has been behaving in a manner unbecoming his position. He’s so narrow-minded that no major project will take off during his regime. Believe me, no progress is going to be made in the project for the next three months and it is going to go the SmartCity way,”Nair said yesterday while reacting to the chief minister’s statement. Achuthanandan had the other day made it clear that individual investors would get priority while offering Kannur International Airport Limited’s (KIAL) shares and “no big sharks would be allowed to swallow the project” by securing majority stake.
The state government’s stake is limited to 26%, leaving 25% to public sector enterprises and 49% to the public to subscribe. A meeting of the company’s board of directors chaired by the chief minister had initially decided to offer 16% each to the Leela group, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and the Mumbai-based Mennen group and offer the remaining 1% to the public. Krishnan Nair also went on record saying he was already in talks with major players like the Changi airport for designing and building of the greenfield airport. The issue also figured in the Kerala Assembly when opposition legislator PC George questioned the decision not to give the general public, especially the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who constitute bulk of the airport users, an opportunity to invest in the infrastructure project.
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