A tale of two airports

A tale of two airports
The Economic Times

Nothing illustrates the paradox of lopsided development in India than the two airports in Bangalore. The existing airport at HAL has excellent road connectivity with the rest of the city but is not geared to take the load of air-traffic to and from Bangalore, estimated to have grown by 38% this year, the highest growth-rate for all Indian airports.

A new international airport at Devanahalli has been designed to take the air-traffic but is 37 km from the city and the connecting roads are not expected to be ready by the time it is opened! However, as per the agreement inked with the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), all civilian flights to and from HAL will stop the moment the new airport is opened on March 30, 2008.

The problem has been highlighted by Bangalore industry chiefs like Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and airline heads like Deccan Aviation executive chairman G R Gopinath but to no avail. And this is India’s largest greenfield airport project!

But, then, the powers-that-be in Karnataka — like JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda whose party ran a coalition government for 40 months with the Congress and then the BJP — were more focused on remaining in office than in ensuring that the new international airport would be fully accessible once it was opened. Deve Gowda even tried to create an urban-rural divide in Karnataka by accusing leading IT companies like Infosys of land-grabbing.

And Infosys’ founder Narayana Murthy, who was associated with BIAL since its inception, resigned as chairman.

Today, the state government’s infrastructure secretary has no option but to point out that it is not feasible to keep both airports open even while he tries to gloss over the poor connectivity to the new international airport by stating that the roads are developed and that the trumpet flyover should be ready soon. That the end-users remain sceptical speaks for itself!