Open letter to R K Mishra !

SB and Vmenon,

Here is the draft of the letter to City-Connect members. Pls feel free to edit it. Pls do suggest the strategy to deliver the same. My suggestion is if possible hand deliver it. That way, it could be an oppurtunity to convey the issues personally

Syed .

Respected City-Connect members and Patrons, Greetings,

It gives us a great pleasure to write to you. The recent news of your leadership in leading the efforts for “Keep HAL Open” is indeed a laudable effort. On behalf of Praja Community (bangalore.praja.in) we commend this step of yours. Please accept our best wishes.

We are truly thrilled and happy to find that Industry leaders like you are taking the initiative on such public important issues like airport and its growth.But we would like to bring to your attention about the need and necessity of this hour to put up a larger fight and effort.

1. The HAL airport at the current conditions, at best can only be a supplement to BIAL in a short term. Can not be termed as a competitor and a long term solution.
2. None of the grievances listed in City-Connect’s PIL as well as R K Mishra’s protest call letter would get address by keeping the HAL airport open. In fact we might get slapped with a half done BIAL airport, if we don’t take action.
3. BIAL is an under-capacity airport – This will remain under capacity until MoCA and others wakes up one day.
4. Access to BIAL is far from being satisfactory – This genuine complaint of ours will haunt us if we knowingly ignore Bangalore city’s day- to – day transport needs and we do nothing about it.
5. BIAL is a private Monopoly and we are at the mercy of private operator – By not waking up to the reality of BIAL’s much needed public support, we will infact be helping BIAL to be a monopoly.
6. Our dear friend Mr. Devesh tells us that BIAL urgently needs to complete the required nuances of an airport. Here is what he writes:

…….If you see carefully, there a major aspects of the airport that are incomplete. Some are very important details. For instance, due to the open area and nearby lakes, Devanahalli suffers from fog. BIAL actually needs Cat II ILS and their equipment is Cat II ready. But their glide-slope is at 3.5 degrees which is why they are starting the airport with only Cat I status, just like HAL today. They are going to try and fix it before the winter season comes. Otherwise .........

Whether we fight for keeping the HAL airport open or not, one basic need of the city of BANGALORE would not get change.

The need is “A decent airport facility for passenger travel and cargo shipments.”

Therefore it is in the interest of each one of us to take those needed steps to ensure that Bangalore gets much needed airport infrastructure ASAP. In this endeavor and public interest efforts, your help and leadership initiative would give the needed strength and support.

On behalf of Praja community we request and solicit your kind help and co-operation for putting up a larger fight for BIAL. Fight for getting the BIAL to complete its unfinished works and expansion plans expeditiously. We would say within next 18 to 24 months.

How how this does gets realized with BIAL in focus? If we take BIAL, HAL, Bidadi options into consideration, it is clear that at this moment BIAL has the highest advantages in terms of acquired land, supporting infrastructure like ATC, operational capability (better than HAL) etc. So BIAL has all the required elements to realize this goal. In the interim BIAL has produced something and everybody is taking a potshot against it. Both for and against it. I am sure it meets some part of our objectives. Then question is how do we go forward for realizing the remaining portions?

1. Get GOK, BMMP, NHAI and IR to improve the Connectivity – This definitely requires help from our industry and business friends. Focus should be on decongesting the traffic in the city that feeds the airport roads. This should be the top priority. This helps everybody – Industry, Business, common people.
2. Get BIAL to expedite all the remaining infrastructure works for Cargo, Security personnel, amenities for Employees and staff member ASAP.
3. Get BIAL to expedite the 2nd Phase. More importantly the 2nd Runway. Our friends like Mr. Devesh Agarwal tell us that there are some hurdles put up by the Airforce. That needs to be resolved ASAP. Otherwise we loose both the time and BIAL investment.
4. Get BIAL to expand the terminal with all the needed amenities and requirements to support the growth that is being flashed in every blog, newspaper and discussion forums.
5. This may not be easy one, but we might have to use all our resources to make BIAL deliver the promised airport in one full piece. No less, No more. This might require even arm twisting of all the stake holders including MoCA, AAI, L&T and GOK (KSIIDC).
6. In final analysis if gets to a fact that we need an additional airport, then work should start for building that infrastructure sans BIAL’s shortcomings.

These are some of the important elements that require a united effort and fight that realizes the bigger good. We have a golden chance to make BIAL - a functional airport in all aspects, Cargo Hub and more importantly serving Bangalore’s needs with good and reasonable passenger amenities. Let’s not let it get slipped due to HAL closure fight.

If we sideline fight for BIAL due to HAL issue, we might as well forget about a decent airport in Bangalore. We would keep fighting on smaller short term cures and the bigger issue of BIAL will get out of our reach. This is the time to get BIAL management to be people friendly and transparent to public at large. If we do not put up a fight we will make BIAL a truly monopoly. So let’s not allow BIAL to be monopoly which doesn’t care for its customers and public at large.

You can have that fight of HAL airport going while you work along with a much larger common souls like us on this much needed and beneficial project completion.

Praja members would look forward to your positive response and helping hand for BIAL.
Sincerely,
Praja Community.