Work on Mysore airport in October

After several assurances, the work on the much-delayed Mandakalli airport on the Mysore-Nanjangud Road may begin next month. It is set to be a Deepavali gift.

With the Airports Authority of India (AAI) deputing three senior officers "" one each for technical, engineering and administrative matters respectively "" and release Rs 40 crore, it is now become certain that the modernisation work of the airport will be taken up in the next few days, a year after the MoU was signed between the Karnataka government and the AAI in October 2005.

Mysore MP C H Vijayashankar held a meeting with the officials here and discussed the project at length.

"Work will start in the first week of October," he told Business Standard, adding that it will be completed in a year to make the airport operational for 75-seater ATR aircraft initially. Work will be taken up on the runway and other works on the 154.22 acres will be handed over to the airport authorities in a week by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) without waiting for the remaining 20.16 acres, the dispute over which is pending in the courts," he said.

"The land owners have moved the court seeking a tax exemption on the compensation amount. Another 95 acres have been located for further expansion to enable mid-size aircraft to land. The land has been identified and notified for acquisition. However, two issues relating to the Mysore-Ooty highway and the Mysore-Nanjangud rail track need to be sorted out, as they are likely to come in the way of further expansion, the BJP MP added.

As the area falls under a panchayat, there are a few other issues to be resolved like power supply. Hence, the AAI will hold a meeting of all the officials concerned from the Railways, PWD, other Central and state government officials in about 15-20 days.

Similarly, the work on doubling the Bangalore-Mysore rail track upto Ramanagaram will commence shortly as chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had promised to release the Rs 25 crore, this month.

The Centre will release its share of Rs 20 crore. This will meet the project cost up to Ramanagaram, Vijayashankar said.

The entire track-doubling project will cost Rs 230 crore of which the state government's share will be Rs 130 crore or 60 per cent.

Replying to a question on the proposed projects being moved out to other cities from Mysore, the MP said: "We need not worry about the Fab City. Many software industries are ready to come to Mysore. The IT sector sees Mysore as the best alternative to Bangalore."

"We should also be careful as to what sort of industries come to Mysore. Mysore is a tourist hub. Its culture and heritage should not suffer," Vijayashankar added.