Bangalore international airport to be redesigned further?

Bangalore international airport to be redesigned further?

The Hindu

Union Minister favours clubbing of phases I and II of the greenfield project

# CEO of BIAL says that it has already reworked the airport design
# Projection for proposed international airport for 2010 is 50 lakh passengers
# Phase I of the project likely to be ready by 2008 and phase II by 2015

BANGALORE: With the aviation industry registering unprecedented growth in the recent past, further redesigning of the proposed International Airport near Bangalore is said to be under active consideration.

It is learnt that the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), constituted to execute the Rs. 12,000-crore project, has taken a recent suggestion by Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel seriously. The Minister favoured clubbing of phase I and II of the greenfield airport.

Chief Executive Officer of the BIAL Albert Brunner said in a presentation here recently that it had already reworked its design and decided to have a larger infrastructure than it initially proposed to have. Since the task of giving a final shape to agreements had taken three years and aviation requirements had changed during the interregnum, the design of the project was changed and scope extended.

But clubbing of the two phases is apparently not under consideration.

Mr. Patel made the suggestion considering that the city's HAL airport attracts about 45 lakh passengers a year, while the projection for proposed international airport for 2010 is 50 lakhs. Phase I of the proposed airport is expected to be ready by 2008 and phase two by 2015. The Minister reportedly observed that the projection for the second phase will be achieved by 2008 itself. The HAL airport is already used by six carriers operating overseas flights.

There are five shareholders including Siemens Group (40 per cent share), Zurich Airport Authority and Larsen and Toubro (17 per cent each), who have formed a consortium. The other shareholders are Government of Karnataka and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which hold 13 per cent share each.

The 1680-hectare (4200-acre) project is expected to carry over 1,30,000 tonnes of cargo a year. Even this is expected to go up considerably. ICICI bank is the lead financier of the project.

Mr. Brunner had announced that the project will be ready by April 2008, unless the BIAL decides to renegotiate it with its shareholders and fix up a fresh deadline. He had assured that there will be no postponement of the deadline once decided.