Crucial BIAL - Govt. talks today

BIAL gears up for crucial talks with Siddu today

Vijay Times

Bangalore: Representatives of the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), in charge of the Devanahalli International Airport project, are scheduled to meet Deputy Chief Minister Sidharamaiah on Tuesday to clear the hurdles for the implementation of the project.

The Siemens-led private consortium, BIAL, on Monday held a marathon meeting of its directors, which was also attended by Industries and Infrastructure Minister P G R Sindhia, BIAL Chief Executive Officer Albert Brunner and other State Government officials. They discussed the issues of concluding the land lease and State-support agreements at the earliest.

The State-support agreement facilitates a Rs 350-crore soft loan from the State Government for the airport project. Under the agreement the consortium has to pay the loan after 10 years grace period following the construction.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of the project running in to rough waters following former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's reported opposition to the payment of Rs 350 crore under the State-support agreement. According to sources, Gowda wants it to be reduced to Rs 280 crore.

He has reportedly also questioned the merits of the estimated Rs 1,300 crore cost of the project and demanded it to be scaled down to about Rs 1,200 crore.

Significant announcement regarding the future of the project is expected to be made on Tuesday after the meeting with Sidharamaiah, BIAL sources said.

Meanwhile, BIAL has almost finalised the air traffic and navigation agreement with the Airports Authority of India. "As per the understanding, the AAI will handle the navigation part and BIAL will pay for their services," a BIAL source said.

Negotiations would be initiated with ICICI bank to finalise the financial closure for the project once the documentation work is over, the source said.