Government to Retain Old HAL Airport

Bangalore: The newly-elected BJP government on Friday said it wants to retain the old HAL airport for short hauls and called on the Centre to examine the issue.
Karnataka minister for IT, BT, Excise and Information, Katta Subramanya Naidu told reporters on the sidelines of the fourth India Innovation Summit here that there should be a dialouge between both the airport authorities and the Centre to examine the issue.
The retention of the old airport would help address the current inconvenience faced by those wishing to take up short hauls and flying to cities like Chennai, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram, he said.
Seeking the intervention of the Centre and Union aviation minister in initiating negotiations, he said that the state, which also holds an equity stake in the new airport, was prepared to hold talks on the issue. "We have examples of cities where two to three airports are functioning", he said.
When constraints of a time frame were drawn to his attention, he said that the government had only recently taken over the reins of the state. "A scope for a dialogue exists at any time. There is no bar for holding dialogues, there is no bar when it comes to development", he said.
21/06/08 PTI/Daijiworld.com

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Categories: Airports Jun 2008