International Airport runway work begins

International Airport runway work begins
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: With Bangalore getting a new Airport by July 2008, what can be first priority but the runway. Work on the four-km long runway at the Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli has already started.

The entire length of the runway has been marked and levelling work is in full swing.

“The work started in the first week of July. It speed up now as a barrier has been put up on the link road that local villagers use,” Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) CEO Albert Brunner said.

This road was the bone of contention between locals and BIAL. The tahsildar had to intervene and put up a barrier blocking the movement of people and vehicles. The villagers now use a circuitous route.

The single runway in the first phase of the airport project will cater to all existing configuration of aircrafts, including the world’s biggest Airbus A-380.

Brunner said apart from pre-cast concrete slabs that are being fabricated to erect a compound wall, the airport location has constructed a testing laboratory where all materials used are pre-tested.

While work is on in full swing, sheds have been built to accommodate 3,000 construction workers. “Already 900 of them are working. More numbers will be added soon,” he said.

The Greenfield airport is 35 km away from the city off the NH 7. Commenting on the distance, Brunner said airports world over were far away from the city centre as both the airports and the cities grow fast. “Oslo airport is 50 km away, Athens 50 km, Munich 45 km.”

The airport will be expanded in the second phase where a second terminal will come up along with an apron, second runway and taxiway.

“This will be a mirror image of the first terminal. Nearby, an Airport City, which will house non-aviation activity, will also come up. This will house business centres, restaurants, hotels and other related businesses that will generate revenue and help lower user tariffs.”

Answering a query as to why the terminal has been designed to resemble a railway station even as airport planners were moving away from this design, Brunner said BIAL had put in a lot of thought in this direction.

“We had a discussion just last week too on the subject. Some like the design and some do not,” he said.