Another attempt planned to ease access to new airport

The Infrastructure Committee set up by the Karnataka government is set to meet on Friday to finalise a few short term measures which will facilitate better access to the upcoming international airport near Devanahalli.

The access road to the new airport has been facing a lot of flak from citizens at large as they fear it will take nearly 2-3 hours to reach the airport dodging heavy traffic on the national highway. The commercial operations of the airport are set to start from March-end 2008.

According to government officials, measures like building overbridges over a couple of railway crossings, putting in place hi-speed luxury buses from various locations in the city and road-widening issues are to be finalised.

Marcel Hungerbuehler, Chief Operating Officer, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) said there is utmost need to finalise a few short-term measures as well as evolve long term solutions.

"The authorities knew the airport was coming up a few years ago and solutions should have been in place. We are hardly four months away from the opening the new airport and we are still discussing options. The meeting on Friday is likely to be a concrete step in that direction and we hope solutions are in place at the earliest," he said.

According to him, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation has ordered around 40 Volvo hi-speed buses which will shuttle from six locations from Bangalore city to the new airport.

He further added that the problems over the last mile stretch from the existing National Highway to the airport has been resolved and two ramps of the trumpet flyover are near completion fast.

"We have taken up the initiative to finish this last mile access and Larsen & Toubro is getting it ready by March-end 2008," Hungerbuehler noted.

The new airport is estimated to handle nearly 10 million passengers a year to start off with and is expected to be expanded to handle nearly 14 million in another four years. BIAL officials also vehemently argued that the existing HAL airport in the city should not be allowed to function as per the original agreement.

"It is true that many global cities do have multiple airports, but there is immense traffic at such locations. For example, in London an average of 40 million passengers criss-cross London and so there are multiple airports. With a 10 million passenger load, it is just not viable to maintain two airports," they added.

Speaking on expansion of the airport infrastructure itself, Hungerbuehler said they are planning a second runway which should be ready in another five years time.