Will Devanahalli drive be easy?

Will Devanahalli drive be easy?
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: To reduce commuting time to the Bangalore International Airport coming up in Devanahalli, the government is planning to remove all traffic signals which slow down traffic along Outer Ring Road, specially from Madivala to Hebbal.
This is among the different solutions put forward in The Times of India to improve road link to the airport (‘Grounded before takeoff ’, Nov 8)
Principal secretary, infrastructure, V P Baligar informed TOI the government is planning to improve the state highway between Whitefield and the airport and the highway stretch from Hoskote to Devanahalli. The civic authorities are trying to remove bottlenecks on the stretch between Mehkri Circle and Hebbal by widening the road and by providing for smooth movement of traffic. The existing congestion stretch between Hebbal and Yelahanka will also be reduced. The administration will provide two flyovers on the stretch between the Bangalore-Bellary national highway and the airport. A third flyover will be provided by August 15 next year.
The government also plans to introduce 40 Volvo buses, and is was working on remote check-in too. Passengers can check-in at the HAL airport or the BMTC office at Shantinagar. It is looking at providing a helicopter link using HAL’s choppers, or through a private player, from points in Bangalore to the airport.
It is working towards a long-term high-speed rail link from M G Road to the airport through the PPP mode. This will cover the distance in 23 minutes and could be ready in four years, Baligar said. Save time, heli-hop to city’s new international airport R Jayaprakash | TNN
Bangalore: Need a cab? Hail a chopper. This could well be the scenario after the new international airport is commissioned in March.
With the state government dragging its feet on dedicated road and rail links to the new airport, BIAL and private airlines offer a solution, albeit an expensive one: heli-hopping.
BIAL (Bangalore International Airport Limited) has worked out a deal to ferry passengers of premium class of all airlines for Rs 1,500. But that is a limited option. So, copter service providers and airliners are working out other viable options. While Kingfisher Airlines has put up two helipads at UB City to cater to its elite passengers, Deccan is considering adding more copters to its fleet.
Deccan CMD Capt Gopinath told TOI: “Since only five to six passengers can travel in a copter at a time, it becomes a limited facility. We are thinking of expanding the fleet.’’
Since the players in the airline industry have increased, industry pundits say that more choppers will be pressed into service. Not only the airliners, some IT/ITES and BPO biggies like Wipro, Infosys, Accenture, IBM have helipads in their campuses. As these companies are located on the city’s periphery, adding to the travel time, this sector seems to be gearing up to pick-drop their top-notch delegates and executives.
That is not all. Premium residential projects costing over Rs 3 crore will now offer copter service to their residents apart from golfing and other club facilities. A highprofile residential project coming up near Electronic City will have a copter stationed there permanently to ferry the residents to the airport.
While sources in the HAL said that it hasn’t received any queries for its civilian version of Advanced Light Helicopters, it is planning to introduce short-service copter services to the new airport.