Panel Instituted To Break Bangalore Airport Deadlock

The Union government has constituted a tripartite committee to resolve the contentious issues in the setting up of the Bangalore International Airport. The panel, consisting of representatives from the Centre, the Karnataka government and the Tata-led consortium consisting of Tata Industries, a group of Singapore-based companies, the Singapore Airport Authority and US major Raytheon. has been asked to submit its report within 20 days.

Civil aviation minister C M Ibrahim yesterday indicated that the proposed airport would not be shifted from its original site at Devenhalli near Bangalore.

He also stated that the airport would be accorded the status of an international airport once it had attained certain standards.

 

The minister was speaking at a meeting with representatives of the Karnataka government and Tata Industries Ltd chairman Ratan Tata, who represented the consortium. Civil aviation secretary Yogesh Chandra also attended the meeting.

The minister said that while the consortium would be allowed to set up equipment at the air traffic control, it would be under the charge of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

During the discussions, the civil ministry officials reportedly suggested that the Karnataka government should be allowed the freedom to fix the time limit for transfer of the proposed airport.

However, the state government officials pointed out that as global tenders were floated on the basis of the `build, own, operate mode, it would not be possible to scrap the original norms.

The tripartite committee will examine the aspect of whether `build, operate, own or `build, own, operate, transfer mode is more viable for the proposed airport. It will also discuss the issue of fixing remunerative airport tariffs.

A feasibility report prepared by the consortium had indicated that the landing and navigational charges should be higher than the prevailing uniform rates of the AAI to make the project financially viable.

Another issue which will come up before the committee will be the insistence of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which operates the existing Bangalore airport, that it will not allow diversion of commercial flights to the new airport.

Karnataka industries minister R V Deshpande, who was present at the meeting, said he was extremely hopeful that the new airport project would be cleared soon and work would start by March. ``Both the Prime Minister and Ibrahim are quite keen that the project comes through fast, he said.