Flying high

Flying high
The proposed international airport will create the much-needed aviation infrastructure here and put the city on the world business map
The Times of India

If any city was in urgent need of a large modern international airport, it's Bangalore. The tech capital of India is witnessing a frenetic pace of double digit growth in air travel, way ahead of traditional gateways Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. No wonder, the promoters of the new Bangalore International Airport in Devanahalli, on the outskirts of the city, are looking to accelerate the pace of development, and even expand the facility. Apart from catering to the teeming hundreds and thousands who are jetting across the country and the globe every day from Bangalore, the new airport is expected to act as the trigger for speedier growth of Karnataka's economy.

While the airport will provide employment opportunities - direct and indirect - to 5,000 to 10,000 people, its economic impact will go beyond these modest numbers. For starters, the real estate values near the airport city are already exploding. Already, land which was being offered at Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakhs an acre one to three years ago is being quoted at Rs 35 to Rs 55 lakhs an acre now. Over the next three to five years, the prices are tipped to grow two or three fold depending on the type of development and its proximity to the airport. Despite the fact that large tracts of land from the city to the new airport have already been bought by developers and investors, 2,500-3,000 acres of land in this region are still being traded.

Consultants say a second city will gradually mushroom around the Devanahalli airport zone, even though a time frame for this activity may be difficult to pin down at this stage. In metros like Delhi and Mumbai, the city virtually grew beyond the airports, which were traditionally considered back of the yonder. And once again, unlike the airport models followed in the past, BIAL will set some new standards. The airport campus - including the belt around it - will host a hotel, shopping mall, conferencing centre, large parking facility, to name a few developments. Arrangements are being made to facilitate a station in the airport zone for rail connectivity in the future from the city center.

Investor mood, which is already bouyant, is likely to see a further northward swing. International funds and developers, especially from Singapore, have been viewing the market for some time now. Their investments will progressively flow in select real estate projects and developer companies, especially as prospects of air connectivity improve with the new airport. While the outsourcing boom has brought much prosperity and work opportunities for talent in Bangalore and rest of India, the city's elevation in the world air travel map, will improve connectivity and prospects of more business. Instead of routing travelers through Mumbai and Chennai, the airlines will check them in directly into Bangalore. The State, incidentally, generates in excess of Rs 1,000 crores in international air travel billing in a year, placing it behind Delhi and Mumbai.

If that's not enough, the new airport and the accelerated air travel that it ushers in, will open doors for a pilot and engineering training facility, along with a possible MRO (maintenance repair and overhaul) facility for India's growing aircraft population. The present HAL-owned airport is bursting at the seams. It handled around 3.4 million passengers last year. This year it could experience a 20 percent rise in numbers on the back of new flights by Air France, Northwest Airlines, and British Airways. Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines are also tipped to increase frequencies in the mid-term to the city. If that was not enough, domestic traffic is simply spiralling.

With a whole new class of people moving to air travel, demand is accelerating at a pace unheard of before. Another budget airline is also gearing to take wings this October, adding to the pressure on the existing airport, and improving the prospects of the new one. Industry experts now forecast passenger traffic in the region of 6-6.5 million in 2008, which is far in excess of the projections made some years ago. Result: the BIAL promoters - Siemens, Zurich Airport, L&T - are planning to build a bigger facility which can handle more than the anticipated traffic. After all, the airport should have the capacity to deal with traffic till the year 2012. So watch for this engineering feat which will change the face of Bangalore and make the city a landmark on the global business map.