Rail link to international airport in the pipeline

Rail link to international airport in the pipeline

The Hindu

Proposal on line from Byappanahalli to be submitted to Cabinet


Bangalore: The Infrastructure Development Department has proposed a dedicated, non-stop rail link from Byappanahalli to the Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli.

Vinay Kumar, Principal Secretary, Infrastructure Development Department, said on Friday that the proposal, on a build, own, operate, transfer (BOOT) model, would be submitted to the Cabinet soon.

He was speaking to presspersons after accompanying Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure Development B. Sriramulu and Bellary MP Karunakar Reddy, who inspected the progress of work on the airport.

Mr. Kumar said the railway line would be around 32 km and, if approved, tenders would be invited for implementation of the project. The Government would be requested for land for the railway line, he said.

Addressing presspersons at the construction site, Mr. Sriramulu said trial runs at the airport would begin in October 2007 and the airport would become fully operational by April 2008. "We are very happy with the pace of work," he said.

Projected traffic

Albert Brunner, chief executive officer of Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL), said in a presentation on airport redesign, that the projected traffic for 2008 was about seven million passengers. This was double the projection of 3 million passengers made in 2005, he said.

The apron area (where aeroplanes are parked) had been increased to accommodate 40 aircraft, up from 13, the access road had been widened and the terminal building made bigger in the redesign, said Mr. Brunner. This was to match the increase in projected traffic, he said.

Mr. Brunner said the redesign had increased the project cost by about Rs. 518 crore, and now the estimated cost of the airport was Rs. 1,930 crore.

While inspecting the construction site, Sivaramakrishnan S. Iyer, chief projects officer of the BIAL, told Mr. Sriramulu that about 24 per cent of the work had been completed. The terminal had been designed in such a manner that in case another one was planned at a later date, the two terminals could function independently, he said.

When asked about the second phase of the project, Mr. Iyer said, "Our aim is to finish this project first. In August 2008, we will think about the second phase. It will be financed from the revenue we get out of the operations from the first phase."

Currently, private promoters own a 74 per cent stake in the international airport, with Siemens being the major partner owning 40 per cent. The Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation and the Airports Authority of India own 13 per cent each.