Click to play videoDevanahalli (Karnataka): The work at the new airport site at Devanahalli, 35 kilometres from Bangalore city is in progress. The runway is ready, and the interiors of the terminal building are taking shape.
The project, which is worth Rs 1,930 crore, promises to help Bangalore cope with its eight million passenger traffic.
"Our layout is in such a way that we can increase whenever the need arises. And the need arises on the side of aircrafts, when we have to add more aircrafts, then we have to increase the size of the buildings. It is completed on one side. We can mirror the runway and we even have space for a satellite terminal. But the next runaway won’t be built before 2014 - that's our present estimate,” says CEO, BIAL, Albert Brunner.
It is India's largest privately owned and operated greenfield airport. BIAL, which will own and operate it, has signed contracts for cargo, ground handling and retail stores.
The initial phase includes a passenger terminal and runway, 42 aircraft stands and eight passenger bridges, parking for 2,000 cars, a fuel farm and flight kitchens. And phases two and three are even more ambitious. Once complete, BIAL will handle 40 million passengers a year.
But it's not just an airport. More than half the 4,030 acres of site area will house a hardware technology park, cargo terminals and cold storage facilities for horticulture. Airport City, as BIAL calls it, will also house a hotel, a convention centre and office and residential space.
With over 75 per cent of the work complete, BIAL is confident of opening the airport in April next year. But there's a bigger problem that the government needs to deal with, that of connecting the city with the new airport..
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