THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has officially wound up it’s much flaunted seaplane project. It has issued orders to dismantle the infrastructure and redistribute the assets to various other projects and departments.The orders for dismantling the infrastructure for the waterdrome at Ashtamudi, one among the five locations, were issued on June 22. The infrastructure at three other locations-Bekal, Punnamada and Kumarakom-were pulled down last year. The dismantling of the assets in Kochi has been progressing.Government sources said the decision to ground the project that never took off beyond a test flight was taken as it could not find operators for the project. The main reason for the reluctance of the operators was learnt to be the stiff opposition from fishermen community who said the project would adversely affect their livelihood.“The decision was taken after it became evident that the difficulties in making the project operational were almost impossible to overcome. The government has been spending Rs 1.5 crore every year only for the maintenance of the assets,” a senior tourism department official said.As per the latest government order, tourism director had submitted a detailed proposal to the government regarding the redistribution of the assets at the various locations, on the basis of which the government issued the orders. The order said that the services of the state industrial security force (SISF) have been terminated who have been providing security for the assets. The SISF had provided the services of one officer and four civil police officers at Ashtamudi.While the agreement with the houseboat that was rented out for the project has been terminated, two speed boats- one 10 seater and a six-seater- will be handed over to district tourism promotion council (DTPC), Kollam.The floating jetty, fire-fighting systems, CCTV surveillance systems and six channelmarking buoys have also been handed over to DTPC Kollam.It has also been decided that security-related equipment like X-ray machines, hand-held metal detectors, door-frame metal detectors, very high frequency equipment, wind direction indicators, explosive detection kits and explosive vapour detectors be handed over to the newly coming up Kannur airport . Similarly, the assets at the other locations were handed over to various DTPCs and the KTDC’s hotels at Thekkady, Bolgatty and KTDC headquarters in the capital.“We are only making use of the infrastructure lying dormant in a better way, as we have been spending a huge amount on their maintenance,” tourism director P Balakiran said.Earlier, the Kerala Tourism Infrastructure Limited (KTIL) that owns the project, had officially terminated the agreements with the Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi airports regarding the space that were rented out at the airports.The project was flagged off by the then chief minister Oommen Chandy in June 2013, by flagging off the six-seater Cessna 206 amphibian aircraft from Ashtamudi lake.

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