Road to airport still on paper

Road to airport still on paper

Expressway To Be Ready In August 2009; Use Bellary Road Till Then

R Jayaprakash | TNN


Bangalore: When the Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli opens in April 2008, air passengers will have to slot more time for their journey to the airport. For, the Bellary Road, or the National Highway 7, will be the only road that will connect the airport to the city — a full 42-km journey — as the expressway planned by the government is still at the planning stage.
The access-controlled, 21.2-km expressway planned by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) to provide easy connectivity from the Outer Ring Road, was supposed to be ready by the time of completion of the airport. But, it is yet to take off.
The project will commence only after four months from now and will be ready by August 2009. The state government notified the project in August, freezing the alignment for the six-lane toll road. This was only after a year of conceiving the project and changing the alignment four times. Sixty days have been allotted for filing objections and suggestions. Later, a preliminary notification will be issued for land acquisition, which will be followed by the final notification.
The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd, which has been awarded the contract, will invite global tenders to construct the toll road on a build-operate-transfer basis. “These processes take a minimum of four to five months. We hope the project will be completed in 20 months,’’ BMRDA officials said. Since the airport opens much earlier than the expressway, by April 2008, air passengers have to move in the bumper-to-bumper traffic at least till August 2009. The Bellary Road is treacherous as it is, with 20,000 passenger car units (PCU) using it per day. Once the airport opens, it will add up to 60,000 PCUs as per a study conducted by the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL). The study says nearly 11.5 million passengers will take off from the airport annually, which breaks down to 40,000 PCUs per day.
Why this inordinate delay? Initially, land losers revolted against freezing of road alignment. “Three petitions were filed in courts even before the project was officially notified. Though it is a greenfield project, the road will come up in the urbanised areas. After conducting a satellite imagery survey, we had to literally walk the alignment. We had first issued a directive to all the village panchayats not to allow any construction or development in the alignment, but that wasn’t followed,’’ BMRDA officials said. The next hitch is the road alignment, which was changed frequently, resulting in massive protests from residents.
Till the land acquisition is complete, it is going to be a rough road for the air passengers.
PROJECT DETAILS
Six-lane, access-controlled, dedicated road; first 2 km to be elevated Starting point: Outer Ring Road near Hennur Cost: Rs 500 crore Final alignment of 21.2 km — ORR-Bharati-Kannur-Chagalatti-Bagalur-Begur-Yerathagabihalli-BIA