BIAL Updates July 13 2007

BIAL CEO Albert Brunner said the airport could open its second runway by 2013 or 2014, when the capacity is expected to be around 18 million passengers a year.

Complying with suggestions from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) will soon initiate work on a canopy as part of the terminal building of the upcoming greenfield airport at Devanahalli. Speaking to reporters at the project site on Thursday, BIAL CEO Albert Brunner said the canopy was part of the original plan. “The canopy plan was dropped in 2002, due to the cost involved. Now, with the Ministry suggesting the canopy, we will build it,” he said. The cost component is yet to be worked out.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had in May written to BIAL, citing the Ministry’s apprehensions on two technical and one aesthetic aspects of the airport, set to start operations on April 2, 2008. Brunner said Patel was satisfied with the airport design and architecture, as expressed by him during a recent visit to the site. “His concerns on possibilities of the terminal getting flooded during rains were due to a misunderstanding. We have a very effective drainage system and are also addressing his concerns about the look of the terminal,” he said.

On enhancing the passenger capacity, Brunner said enhancements could be made when the need arises. He said the airport could open its second runway by 2013 or 2014, when the capacity is expected to be around 18 million passengers a year. The airport will open to meet a passenger traffic of 10 million per year.

Connectivity BIAL is in “serious discussions” with private bus operators on starting services in two segments — express and ordinary — from Bangalore and Devanahalli, around 35 km off the City. Brunner said BIAL had a meeting with railways last week to explore possibilities of aligning the proposed rail link from the City to the airport.

He said though the A380s could land on the airport’s 45 metre-wide runway, the hangars are not designed to house them.

BIAL will take up work on the trumpet interchange connecting NH7 to the airport, at a cost of Rs 117 crore. One of the three Road Over Bridges in the interchange is stuck in a land dispute, which is unlikely to be cleared when the airport starts operations.

... Talking about the proposal to have two airports in Bangalore, Mr Brunner said “Bangalore doesn’t need two airports. The BIAL airport can touch its peak capacity of 40 to 50 million passengers a year, in the next 25 years. Maybe as a long-term idea, we can think of two airports. But it doesn’t make sense to acquire 4,000 acres of land to construct a world-class airport and then open the old airport. No such suggestion was made during our interactions with the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation either.