Mysore airport work set to be delayed

With the Airports Authority of India (AAI) rejecting Karnataka government’s plea for sharing the land acquisition cost, plans to develop the Mysore Airport at Mandakalli, on the outskirts of the city, to facilitate operations by bigger aircraft may be delayed further.

Minister of state (independent charge) for civil aviation Praful Patel informed the Lok Sabha today that the AAI had not accepted the request of the Karnataka government for cost sharing, because as per the MoU, signed between the state government and the AAI on October 6, 2005, any additional land required for expansion of the Mysore Airport is to be acquired by the state and transferred to the AAI, free of cost and free from all encumbrances.

AAI had taken up the development of Mysore Airport for ATR-72 type of aircraft operations in Phase I. Accor-dingly, it has completed cons-truction of the runway 09/27 of dimension 1740m x 30m, apron and link taxiway with associated facilities in March 2008 suited for ATR-72 aircraft operations. Construction of terminal building, technical block-cum-control tower, fire station, were completed in March this year. The airport, modernised at a cost of Rs 60 crore, was inaugurated on June 15 last by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.

For the Phase-II development, AAI had requested the state to provide additional 310 acres of land, including diversion of NH-212 for future expansion plans for A-321 type of aircraft operations along with city-side facilities and associated infrastructure.

The Karnataka government had requested AAI for sharing the land acquisition cost for taking up the airport expansion though subsequent to the MoU it has handed over 188 acres of the requisite 310 acres of land free of cost to AAI.

The expansion of the airport hinges on realigning the National Highway 212, the Bangalore-Ooty highway which passes through Mysore close to the Mandakalli airport, for which about 162 acres are required. Once land acquisition is completed and the highway realigned, the length of the existing runway can be increased to facilitate operations of Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

Although the Mandakalli airport, which was operational during the period of the Mysore Maharajas and later remained neglected, has been modernised to receive short-haul flights with a capacity of 60-70 passengers and was inaugurated last month after a prolonged delay. Commercial operation of air services is yet to begin as no flight service company has come forward to operate regular flights as they are pleading for cut in sales tax and other concessions.