Panel to do a check on new Bangalore airport

Panel to do a check on new Bangalore airport
Stephen David
Bangalore, October 23, 2008


When it comes to some of the finest watches or chocolates, you can never miss the Swiss connection. When the new Swiss-architect designed the new international airport in Bangalore, opened in May 2008, it was only natural for the airport users to expect a similar world class product from the roughly 3,900-acre airport management.

But after some legislators like D.K. Shivakumar voiced their concerns about the airport's "world class" claims -- especially because the Karnataka government has done its bit by giving the private consortium the land and other facilities -- the Karnataka Assembly promptly constituted a joint house committee to go into the facilities on offer at the Bangalore international airport in Devanahalli, 35 km north of the city.

Medical doctor and Bangalore legislator Hemachandra Sagar, head of the 20-member panel, said his team will study the "international standard" of the new airport.

Sagar said he will probe if there are any shortcomings, do a comparative analysis with other foreign airports, make a first-hand assessment of the facilities and also take the opinion of airport users. His report will be submitted to the Assembly speaker this coming December or January.

Shivakumar, joined by other legislators like Yogish Bhat, HD Revanna, former minister and son of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, and Abdul Azim, a former police officer, now part of the Sagar panel rued that the standards at the new airport had to be raised.

Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) Chief Operating Officer Marcel Hungerbuehler was also present at the first meeting of the joint house panel that met earlier this month in the Vidhana Soudha.

Sagar said his panel will probe all angles of the BIAL-run airport - a Siemens-led consortium that holds 76% ownership, with 13% each shared by Karnataka government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) - including tax waivers or exemptions if it has availed from the government, the money spent on its infrastructure.

Regular passengers like city legal eagle Navkesh Batra has more brickbats than bouquets for this airport. Apart from the traffic gridlock that he has to manage on the way from the city, Batra points out that "you already feel like you are in a choked airport within a few months of the new airport being opened" and feels the "one in Hyderabad is much more efficient in my experience". He felt the other airport had shorter turn-around time with baggage retrieval and had more check-in counters.

After some political leaders complained that some basic courtesies due to public leaders like them were not extended to them -- like a separate VIP lounge, for example, that was commonplace at the HAL-run airport in the city that was shut down as a pre-condition to run this India's first greenfield airport with private participation - BIAL opened a special lounge earlier this month.

Some of the embittered legislators were venting their anger on the airport management because they felt they had to be treated better because the government had given them land, power and water and other facilities which will also be examined by the Sagar panel.

The other complaint from some airport users was that the drivers and the general public did not have a low-priced food joint like in the old airport premises.

BIAL, which has the option to run the airport for 30 years and continue for another 30 years, can recover its Rs 2,000-odd crore investment or debt in a few years by just user development fee alone: BIAL is seeking between Rs 600 and Rs 1000 per passenger depending on the domestic and foreign sector.

Before the global meltdown hit the air traffic sector, the Bangalore airport was running full, hoping to net atleast ten million passengers in its first year.

In Juy 2008, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel asked the Siemens-led private consortium to build a second terminal within three years to cope with a 20 million per year passenger traffic. BIAL's projected traffic of 10.1 million passengers by 2010 was achieved in 2007-08 itself.

But it is not just the strong joint house panel that BIAL has to face. A former Karnataka chief secretary Dr A. Ravindra has filed a petition before the Karnataka high court requesting it to allow continuation of the old airport to cope with the high volume of traffic.

Capt GR Gopinath, who founded India's first lowfare airlines Air Deccan that was bought over by Vijay Mallya, said cities like Bangalore should have more than one airport. "See London or New York that have multiple airports," says Gopinath. "There is enough market for all."

Some legislators who also agree with Gopinath say that the government should negotiate with BIAL and come up with a win-win multiple airports plan. Karnataka Information Technology Minister Katta Subramanaya Naidu says it may be feasible to run both airports but added that he would have study the details because the government has signed an agreement with the BIAL regarding not having another airport within a 150-km radius. Naidu is also hoping that central aviation minister Patel would help push for two airports here.

"We hope the joint house committee study report will help create lots more facilities than there are now to make our travel much more comfortable and enjoyable," says Batra. So do passengers like him who feel there is much to expect especially being used to the best of Swiss chocolates or watches.