And you thought the road blocks for BIAL were over?

Everything ‘flies’ here but planes
District Road, Continuous Traffic Hold Up Runway Work
The Times of India

Devanahalli (Bangalore Rural): Do you know what is plying on the designer runway of Bangalore international airport? Not airplanes; but cows, sheep, tractors, cars, trucks, lorries, motorcycles, autorickshaws, bicycles, government-run KSRTC buses, pedestrians...

Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) staff, who are midway through building the “Asian record’’4 km runway are tearing their hair out. Reason: 40 days after the start of airport construction on July 2, nobody has shutdown a district road that cuts midway through the under-construction runway — at 2.7 km.

BIAL officials told The Times of India on Wednesday: “This is holding up completion of the runway. How can we dig through the road, if there is continuous traffic?’’

The road is particularly busy as it is the major link for villages in the area to reach markets in Bangalore. On an average, the small stretch across the runway sees six vehicles per minute, minus the sheep and cows.

BIAL issued three deadlines to villagers to shut the road, the latest being August 16. An official notice has been put up stating all public traffic is banned on the road.

Villagers, however, staged protests. Their grouse is valid: The alternative road, being built by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited, is just mud. No metalling or asphalt.

“It is 8 km longer than the present road. We are willing to use it, but only after they complete it,’’ said Muniraju of Baichapura.

There are also other hurdles: About 40 families resident in the erstwhile Gangamuttanahalli and Arasinakunte villages have stubbornly stayed put, despite compensation and alternative sites. Result: Excavation, including the last 200 metres of the runway, halted till they are eased out.

Villagers are also resisting the BIAL takeover of a quarry, which is to supply the airport’s stone requirement. Locals, who have been illegally mining there for years, refuse to give up the spot. BIAL chief projects officer Sivaramakrishnan S. Iyer said: “We are working with the government to resolve these problems.’’
The silver lining is: Work is on at a rapid pace on other parts of the airport site, including the boundary wall on the east and the west sides.
Mysore airport MoU

New Delhi: The Karnataka government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will enter into an agreement on September 5 for upgrading Mysore’s Mandakalli airport into a full-fledged one. After a meeting with civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Wednesday here, state finance minister P.G.R. Sindhia said: “The Centre has given nod for the (full-fledged) airport. We will be entering into an MoU on land exchange with AAI on September 5.”

The AAI had earlier approved the draft memorandum on the airport project.

First month report card

Work is on
Boundary wall
Runway Apron area
Finer engineering details for terminal

Completed
Site offices, workers quarters set up
Material testing labs set up
Pre-casting yard in production
Quarry, stone-crusher operational
Hurdles Traffic cutting across runway Locals stage dharnas against stopping traffic Villagers refuse to move out Quarry under dispute