Cochin airport opens after two weeks

Kochi Aug 29 (IANS) The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) on Wednesday commenced normal operations after a two-week closure due to floods in Kerala.
It was shut on August 15 after the airport was flooded causing widespread damage to infrastructure.
The first aircraft a domestic flight touched down at 2 p.m. on Wednesday airport officials said.
CIAL authorities said that in a day or two the airport would be functional like earlier.
For the past three days more than 1 000 people were engaged in putting the airport back in order cleaning and repairing the systems which became non-functional after flood waters entered the complex.
According to CIAL the disaster has caused a loss of around Rs 300 crore to the airport. A temporary compound wall has been erected after the earlier one was washed away.
The airport was first closed on August 9 for a few hours after which it was again shut on August 15.
The Cochin airport is the busiest of three airports in Kerala and handled 10 million passengers in 2017-18 fiscal.

--IANS sg/mr