Thiruvanantha-puram: Defence Minister A K Antony will inaugurate the work on Kerala’s fourth international airport in Kannur on Sunday. State Excise and Fisheries Minister K Babu, who is in charge of the airport project, said the work that begins on Sunday is for construction of runway and related civil works. “The airport near Kannur is coming up on 2,000 acres and the tender process for the next phase, which consists of the terminal building and related infrastructure, would be finalised in May this year,” Babu said. The agreement between the state government and Larsen and Toubro, Mumbai, who will undertake the first phase work, was completed in November. The Kerala government yesterday decided to increase its stake in the airport from 26 percent to 35 percent. By September 2015, the trial run of the airport is being planned and by December 31, 2015, the airport would be opened for service, he said.
43kg of fake gold offered at shrine
Jammu: A total of 43kg of gold and 57,000kg of silver offered by devotees at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir have been found to be fake, an RTI application has revealed. The RTI query elicited the information that 193.5kg of gold and 81,635kg of silver was offered at the shrine at Katra town in the last five years. “Of this, 43kg of gold and 57,815kg of silver turned out to be fake,” M K Bhandari, chief executive officer of the board that manages the shrine, said. “We send the precious metal offerings to the government for melting and converting (them) into gold and silver coins which the devotees buy as souvenirs.” He said some devotees may be buying gold and silver without checking their purity.
Eight killed in bus blaze
Thane: Eight passengers were killed in their sleep and 11 others injured when a private luxury sleeper bus rammed into a diesel oil tanker and caught fire on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway early yesterday, police said. The tragedy struck the Pune-Ahmedabad bus near Kuregaon village in Thane district’s Manor town. There were 21 passengers on the ill-fated bus, besides the driver and conductor.
IANS
