Uncertainty over opening date of new airport in Bangalore

New Delhi/Bangalore: Will the new airport in Bangalore open on May 11 or is there likely to be a further delay? A clear picture is likely to emerge towards the end of the month by when the report of the Director General of Civil Aviation on giving a licence to the airport would have been received and the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, would have had a meeting with officials of the Ministry, Airports Authority of India, the Karnataka Government and the Bangalore International Airports Ltd (BIAL).
The meeting has been called in view of the High Court direction to the Union Government to reconsider closure of the HAL airport and also on levy of user development fee. The concession agreement drawn with the promoters of the new airport states that the existing airport will close when the greenfield airport opens.
Officials from private airlines also maintain that the airport is unlikely to be inaugurated till a new government is in place in the State, which is expected by May-end. Ministry of Civil Aviation officials, however, caution that it was premature to say just yet that the airport opening has been pushed back from May 11, the date proposed by the promoters.
22/04/08 Ashwini Phadnis/Madhumathi D.S/Business Line

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Categories: Airports Apr 2008, New Apr 2008