It’s a May 24 dawn for new airport

It’s a May 24 dawn for new airport
Opening Delayed Till Completion Of Election Process
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: The tamasha surrounding the opening of the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) continues. Within 45 minutes of holding a news conference to announce the opening of BIA on May 23, BIAL issued a press release saying the new facility would take off 24 hours later.
BIA will now open at 12.01 am on May 24. The BIAL release said: “We have just received a notification from the ministry of civil aviation. According to the notification, the central government hereby notifies that the BIA would be commissioned with effect from 00.01 hours of 24th May 2008 instead of 00.01 hours of 23rd May 2008 as notified earlier.”
All flights landing and departing after 12.01 am on May 24 will operate from BIA. A flight terminating in Bangalore just before 11.59 pm on May 23 will do so at HAL airport. However, for a flight making a stopover here — and then taking off for a further destination — it will be BIA.
All other flights will operate to and from HAL airport on May 23.
Due to security concerns, BIA cannot be opened on its scheduled date of May 23. “As May 22 will have the third and last phase of voting in Karnataka, all police and other security personnel have been deployed there. It will not be possible to move the security personnel to the new airport,” a source said.
Principal secretary (infrastructure) V P Baligar said: “The international airport is being made technically operational from the midnight of May 23-24, but there will be no formal inauguration.’’
Commenting on the sudden notification, BIAL CEO Albert Brunner said: “We are taken by surprise. In fact, we have just closed a press conference communicating our preparedness for tomorrow. However, there is nothing we can do at this point. All our efforts are now towards minimizing passenger and airline inconvenience owing to this postponement.”
Earlier, Brunner told reporters that international passengers will be charged a user development fee (UDF) of Rs 1,070 (including taxes). “Until July 1, the UDF will be collected at the airport. Post-July 1, the UDF will be incorporated into the ticket.” Domestic passengers will not have to pay UDF for the first three months. “We will decide on UDF (for domestic passengers) once an airport regulator comes in,” he said.
‘HAL chapter not closed’
Bangalore: BIAL CEO Albert Brunner, to a question on keeping the HAL airport open, said: “The ministry of civil aviation has taken a decision to monitor and measure the capacity handling of our airport over 6 to 7 months.” The High Court hearing is next month. “This chapter is not yet closed”, he added. TNN Will EC advice cause more delay?
While the official line is that BIA will be delayed by 24 hours, unofficially it reads differently. According to sources, it is believed the Election Commission has suggested to the aviation ministry that BIA be opened after an elected government is in place. Going by this, BIA will open only in June. State election commissioner M N Vidyashankar was unavailable for comment.
Recently, governor Rameshwar Thakur had to withdraw the executive committee’s decision allowing NICE to go ahead with the BMIC project. The decision followed an EC directive to stay the committee’s order until elections are over. TNN