Work on new Bangalore airport from May

The work on the much-delayed greenfield Bangalore International Airport will begin next month and the project's chief executive officer hopes the first flight will take off by February 2008.

"Nearly 99 per cent of the legal formalities are completed and even signed. We have to sign a land lease deed, which I am confident to do in the next few days. We should be in a position to start construction within a month from now," Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) CEO Albert Brunner said here.

BIAL is the company formed to execute the airport project at Devanahalli, about 35 kms from the city, with its chairman being N R Narayana Murthy, Infosys founder and chief mentor.

The Siemens-led consortium holds a 74 per cent equity stake in the project that consists of European airport operator "" Unique (Zurich airport) of Switzerland and the Indian engineering and construction giant L and T.

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the Karnataka State Industrial Investment Development Corporation (KSIIDC), nodal agencies of the Centre and the state "" each hold a 13 per cent equity stake in the project.

Brunner said the final cost of the Devanahalli airport has escalated to Rs 1,411 crore, that includes about Rs 100 crore in tax and duties, as against the earlier projections of Rs 1,330 crore.