New Bangalore airport faces probe by legislators

Bangalore: The two-month old Bangalore international airport, a Rs.25- billion ($625-million) greenfield project, faces a probe by a Karnataka legislators’ panel over alleged deviation in design and lack of sufficient facilities for passengers as well as visitors. “The new airport is no better than an ordinary bus stand”, “It is substandard”, “There is no proper seating arrangements for passengers and visitors” - these are the terms in which state legislators and ministers describe the new airport.
A consortium of Unique Zurich Airport, Siemens Project Ventures and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has built the airport, with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Karnataka government as minority stakeholders.
“There has been deviation from the architecture, style and design. It does not add to the image of Bangalore. There are no proper facilities for passengers and visitors,” Congress legislator D.K. Shivakumar, who raised the issue in the state assembly last week, told IANS.
Legislators from other parties supported him. The Bharatiya Janata Party government agreed to set up a committee of members from both the assembly and the council to probe the lapses.
“I am a former urban development minister. The design of the airport is different from what was approved,” Shivakumar charged.
When asked if there was any scope to change the design now, he insisted: “There are lots of possibilities to improve. It can be done. The legislators’ panel will decide that.”
On Wednesday Minister for IT and BT Katta Subramanya Naidu called the new airport, about 40 km north of the city centre, “a poor cousin to other airports of international standards, including the New Delhi and Hyderabad airports.
10/08/08 IANS/Vishwanath Karnic/Thaindian.com, Thailand

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008