IT'S now official. The new Bangalore International Airport will be opened only on May 11, 2008. The postponement from March 30 to May 11 was announced on Thursday citing a delay sought by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The airport issue has been hogging the headlines for a fortnight. Should the city retain its old HAL Airport? Should it be abandoned totally? Will the new BIAL Airport measure up to challenges of growing air traffic? Or should both airports function simultaneously? These were some of the questions asked.
Though postponement of the inauguration by a month was a certainty, the BIAL was in no mood to defer the deadline. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) had sought a month's time to give clearance to Air Traffic Control (ATC) and Air Safety arrangements. It will be installing the requisite equipment by March 20. It would then need 1,000 hours of what is known as 'hot-standby' period before the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance-Air Traffic Management (ATM-CNS) is fully opertionalised.
This is considered crucial for ensuring air safety. But Albert Brunner, BIAL CEO, brushed aside all these issues. He had stuck to the March 30 deadline for start of operations. Meanwhile, Public Interest Litigations (PIL) from citizens wanted the old HAL Airport. They hade pleaded against flight operations being shifted to BIAL on the grounds of poor connectivity (the approach route is still not ready) and the user charges to be levied on passengers.
A seminar on 'Should HAL Airport be closed?' last week turned into a slanging match. S. R. Iyer, deputy general manager of the HAL Airport argued for retention of the old airport as BIAL has only 35 per cent more capacity than the HAL. "And it will be saturated very soon,’’ he feared. Brunner said retaining of the HAL would breach an agreement with the Government of India which called for the closure of HAL Airport. It would also shake investors' confidence in Swiss company which would like to be part of more BIAL projects.
Amid all this confusion, work on the dirt track to Devanahalli where the new airport is located is make slow, snails progress.
An exercise in accountancy
With no government in the state, a budget becomes an 'exercise in accountancy'. That is what Union Finance Minister P. Chidambram did when he presented the Karnataka Budget 2007-2008 on March 10.
Understandably, no new welfare schemes or development programmes was announced, given the apolitical nature of the presentation. However, considerabe hikes in allocations for agriculture, (an 18 per cent increase over the previous year) education, santation and health have been praised by the state media.
The fiscal deficit management to within three per cent too drew praise from the finance minister.
'Golden Chariot' gets going
Amidst festive scenes, South India's first luxury train, 'Golden Chariot' rolled out of Bangalore's northern railway terminal Yeshwanthpur on March 10.
On board the 19-coach train on its maiden journey were 65 VIP guests, 15 booked passengers and 15 journalists.
The train passes through Tippu Sultan's capital Srirangapatnam, Mysore, Kabini reservoir resort, the Jain pilgrim centre at Shravanabelagola, the famous temple towns of Belur; Halebid, capital of the medieval kingdom of Hampi, caves of Badami and Aihole, and the scenic resort at Pattadakal.
Taken from http://www.khaleejtimes.com
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