Preparing for take-off

Preparing for take-off

The Hindu Business Line

The upcoming Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli aspires to be India's best.

That Bangalore is booming is undisputed. Its malls, cars and soaring land prices apart, one big index is the little big city's airport, the fastest growing and the third busiest for domestic travel after Delhi and Mumbai.

The HAL Airport, set up over 45 years ago primarily to cater to military aircraft, handles close to 4 million passengers and is likely to touch 5 million by March 2006. "A few years ago, this was the kind of traffic we had anticipated around 2008-2010," says a senior airport official.

True, a bulk of the traffic comprises domestic travellers. But the international traffic is soaring too. Naturally, with two major European airlines — British Airways and Air France — declaring that Bangalore (read: its software-led clientele) matters a lot to them and launching direct flights to London and Paris.

Ever since the airport was declared international in May 2000, its foreign connections are growing. Starting with Royal Nepal Airlines, the first international carrier to touch down at Bangalore airport, nine international airlines including Lufthansa, Malaysian, Singapore Airlines, Gulf Air and Thai operate to and from the city, apart from Air India and Indian Airlines.

With a passenger traffic growth of 33 per cent, dubbed the highest in the world during 2004, the HAL airport is unambiguously bursting at the seams. Each day sees 300 landings and take-offs — comprising domestic, cargo and international aircraft apart from military and HAL's test flights — at the airport well within city limits. There is little scope for expansion as many new residential layouts have come up just beyond it, especially along the outer ring road.

Flashback to the 1990s: Even as Bangalore went global with its IT success story, there was debate on whether to expand the congested HAL Airport or build a new one from scratch. HAL lost the battle.

The Tatas, in a tie-up with Raytheon and the Changi Airport Authority, made the first bid to build a new international airport at Devanahalli, nearly 40 km north of the city, and off National Highway 7. Faced with delays and several political hurdles the consortium backed out of the project in June 1998.

The Karnataka Government made a second bid, signing up a minority participation pact with the Airports Authority of India in 1999. The Siemens-L&T-Unique Zurich airport combine won the mandate in October 2001 to build and operate the country's first private-promoted greenfield international airport at sleepy Devanahalli — literally meaning `God's village'. The new airport will cost over Rs 1,400 crore in its first phase.

This time too, the going was not smooth. After much haggling over policies and precedents, work on the new Bangalore international airport (BIA) officially began on July 2 this year.

When ready, this is meant to be India's best and among Asia's top airports, says Albert Brunner, CEO of Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL).

Spread over 4,000 acres, BIA will be built in 30 months and operate commercial flights in April 2008. The initial phase includes the runway, aircraft stands, a terminal building, technical buildings and other airside and landside facilities.

"Construction is progressing well and on schedule," says Brunner. "Major civil works, including earthworks, for the runway and taxiway are in progress. Of the 4-km runway, cut and fill is in progress for a length of 3.2 km."

Some 450 metres of the 28-km security wall have been erected along the northern, southern and eastern boundaries. "The concrete pour for the terminal building is on and foundations are being cast. Excavation is completed in four grids of the basement floor. The foundation for the technical building has been completed and columns up to the first floor are being cast."

Meanwhile, the State's Infrastructure Development Department has also got into the act to bring adequate paani, bijli and sadak to Devanahalli.

Says Vinay Kumar, Principal Secretary, IDD, "Non-potable water has reached the site on November 27 and potable water will be ensured by January 2006, well ahead of schedule. KPTCL (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd) is setting up a 220-kva power station." IDD is also coordinating a trumpet-shaped interchange and a high-speed road access with National Highways Authority of India; it is also talking of a dedicated rail line from the city to the airport.

Small wonder then that real estate activity is buzzing around Devanahalli and the adjoining Yelahanka suburb, where developers are making a killing.

Towards end-November, BIAL began calling for bids for commercial establishments at the airport, including ground handling, cargo and fuel facility.

Once the new airport becomes operational at Devanahalli, HAL airport — owned by HAL and operated by AAI in a revenue sharing arrangement — will be restricted to defence, test and VVIP flights, and aircraft with less than 50-seater capacity.

But the upcoming airport faces a new hitch. The initial traffic projection of 7 million has admittedly beaten all expectations as the projection for 2005, the previous dateline for the airport, was 4.5 million. Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel now wants BIAL to add capacity, aesthetics and rework the plan to suit the higher load factor. "BIAL is working on a redesign of the initial project. Once the redesign is finalised and approved, we will be happy to share it," Brunner said.