Bangalore international airport launch set for March 30

Bangalore international airport launch set for March 30

Madhumathi D.S.

Bangalore, Oct. 22 The new Bangalore international airport, five months away from zero hour, has started spreading the word among customers and travelling public about its launch date, March 30, 2008.

Just after the midnight of that day, Bangalore’s all domestic and international flights will land at or take off from Devanahalli, 30 km away, instead of the existing HAL airport.

“Now is a good time to start informing everybody about the new airport,” said the spokeswoman for Bangalore International Airport Ltd, the five-promoter special vehicle that is building the Rs 1,930-crore greenfield airport.

“We have started feeding the thought of the opening date around, from the civil aviation authorities, the Government, airlines, to corporates and the public.”

It would mean an airport constructed from scratch in record 32 months and which would start off with handling 9-10 million passengers annually; some 20 airlines are likely to touch down here.
MANUALS READY

Nine manuals — pertaining to operations, safety, security, maintenance, emergency — and the airport readiness plan have been drafted and submitted to the Director-General of Civil Aviation. Approval of them will get BIAL the licence to operate an airport.

In a parallel activity, BIAL is keeping airlines — the airport’s primary customers — and corporates posted of their new destination starting just after the midnight of March 29-30, 2008.

Besides sporting the date on its Web site, the company has begun with the medium of newsletters, mousepads, bookmarks, T-shirts, besides routine mailers to drive home the message. “For now, it’s all being done in an unconventional way,” the spokeswoman told Business Line.

“We chose the recent Bangalore Book Fair to put out the message through book marks and T-shirts for all the organisers at the fair. There were quizzes for school-goers about the airport.” The promotions should obviously pick up in the coming months.
SITE VISITS

Another way is to encourage select site visits by companies, schools, colleges and institutions, apart from the now regular trips of airline teams. “It was difficult earlier as the construction was at its peak; we now have a person solely to interact with these interest groups. The project is more than 80 per cent over, with landscaping at the parking lot and runway lighting done,” she said.

The Siemens Ventures-L&T-Unique Zurich combine, along with minority promoters Airports Authority of India and the state-owned Karnataka State Industrial Investment Development Corporation, started construction of the airport on July 2, 2005. The State has contributed 4,000 acres at Devanahalli.

The access from the city on NH-7 is ready and the first overbridge over rail has come up. BIAL has taken up the ‘trumpet exchange’ or flyover to bring in commuters from either side of NH-7 into the airport site.