Bangalore’s new airport gears up for Rs 2,500-cr expansion

Bangalore: Even as the new Bengaluru International Airport is almost set for flight on March 30, its promoters are gearing up for round 2: expansion worth around Rs 2,500 crore over the next three years.
The airport project that began in July 2005 is putting the finishing touches to construction; it is getting two to four domestic airlines to do pre-launch test flights possibly between March 7 and 15.
Mr Albert Brunner, CEO of the airport company Bangalore International Airport Ltd, said the new airport being built by the Siemens-L&T-Unique Zurich consortium would cater to 10 million passengers in the first year. With traffic expected to grow 30-35 per cent by 2010, expansion had become a necessity.
Initially, the second runway was not foreseen for 10-15 years – or until 2013. Now that was being advanced to 2010-11 along with an expanded terminal building. A clear picture of the expansion would emerge by the year-end, Mr Brunner said. He said 95 per cent of the work on the infrastructure and IT side is over. The airport will have 54 counters on the ground and first floor for check-ins and baggage.
21/02/08 Business Line

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, New Feb 2008