Official Website: Bangalore International Airport
Promoters: Siemens-Zurich Airport-L&T consortium, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Karnataka State Investment and Industrial Development Corporation [KSIIDC].
Start Date: October 2002, June 2003, September 2003, November 2003, December 2003, June 2004, Jan 2005, Feb 2005, April 2005, July 2-2005
End Date: 2003, Early 2005, Mid-2006, Mid-2007 [27 months], Jan 2-2008
Trial Run: Jan 15, 2008 [to be held in 3 stages: Basic, Advanced and Integrated]
First Commercial Flight: March 30, 2008, May 11, 2008, May 24, 2008 (FINALLY!)
Caution: All dates are slippery when wet.
|
Some Other Important [and forgotten] Dates
- Project conceived in 1991
- Tatas-led consortium walks out over delay in clearance
- May 1999: MoU signed betwen KSIIDC and Airport Authority of India
- June 1999: Expression of interest invited
- November 8, 2000: Bidders asked to submit detailed project report
- October 29, 2001: Seimen's led consortium selected by Government of Karnataka
- Jan 23, 2002: Shareholders agreement signed
- Jan 2002: Ex-PM Vajpayee performed ground breaking
- Stake holders meeting held in Jan 2003
- Ex-CM SM Krishna performed ground breaking [again!] in Jan 2004
- July 2004: Concession agreement signed between State Govt., Govt of India and BIAL
- NOC [No Objection Certificate] pending from Defence Ministry
- Dec 21, 2004: Final clearance given by Dharam Singh govt
- Jan 20, 2005: State support agreement between State Govt and BIAL
- Jan 20, 2005: Land lease agreement between State Govt and BIAL
- March 11, 2005: EPC contracts with Seimens (Germany and India) and L&T
- April 8, 2005: Operation and maintenance agreement - BIAL & Unique Zurich
- April 6, 2005: CNS/ATM agreement between BIAL and AAI
- April 30, 2005: Land lease deed signed BIAL and KSIIDC
- June 10, 2005: Extension of shareholders' agreement
- June 22, 2005: SBI guarantee to state support of Rs 350 crore
- June 23, 2005: Declaration of financial closure by ICICI Bank
- July 2, 2005: Construction commencement date
- March 7, 2008: First test flight from Bangalore HAL airport to BIAL
As of June 2007 some details of the existing Bangalore HAL domestic airport are as follows,
- 3rd busiest airport in India
- 7.5 million passengers a year
- Rs 100-150 crore in landing parking fees
- 830 domestic flights per week
- 29 nonstop flights per week
Bangalore has been one of the most neglected metros in India. Bangalore is known as the garden city, silicon valley of India and very soon the biotech hub of India. But can you imagine we still don't have an international airport? What a shame.
We have been waiting forever for an international airport and looks like by 2006 we will have one. The project got delayed several times, obviously, due to political problems. The cost of the project will be $230 million [it was lowered by $20 million]. The state will be pitching in $80 million [instead of $95 million]
To avoid any further delay in the financial closure for the Bangalore International Airport, it was decided in Sept-Oct 2002 to raise funds from Indian financial institutions itself. Hence, most of the funding for the Rs 1,150 crore project is expected to come from Indian FIs itself. One of the main reasons why a foreign investor would shy away from this project is because AAI controls all airports in India. A bill in the parliament is yet to be amended which would take the private Bangalore International Airport out of the pruview of AAI. Until the law is amended, AAI will control all user charges, including airline charges. So the funding will look something like (as of Oct 2002)
- Rs 375 crore from Karnataka Govt (32.6%)
- Rs 379.5 crore from Indian financial institutions as debt (33%)
- Rs 51.42 crore from the three member international consortium of Siemens Project Ventures, Larsen & Turbo and Unique Zurich Airport
As of Dec 2004 the share holding is
- AAI: 17%
- Karnataka Government: 13%
- Larsen & Turbo: 17%
- Unique Zurich Airport: 13%
- Siemens Project Ventures: 40%
Sometime in 1998 the government selected Devanahalli near Bangalore for this project [heard many lobbyists were behind this selection] and the price of land in the sorrounding areas of Devanahalli just shot up. Farmers became rich overnight [even after paying the cut to middlemen!]. But then came the bad news, the govt decided to change their mind and dropped Devanahalli. Finally, Devanahalli is back again on the map.
In 2002 present air traffic from Bangalore was 22 lakh which was expected to increase to 40 lakh by 2005, when the airport is expected to be operational. The airport is expected to generate 2,5000 skilled and semi-skilled jobs.
The airport is being designed by Kaufmann, van der Meer Planer AG, a Switzerland based company.
As of September 2004 the following is still pending for approval:
- Communication navigation, services and air traffic management agreement between BIAL and AAI.
- Operation and maintenance services agreement between BIAL and Unique Zurich Airports.
- Engineering procurement and construction agreement between BIAL and the contractors.
Some international flight activity already exists in the current HAL/domestic airport:
- Air France - commenced on Oct 31, 2005
- British Airways - commenced on Nov 1, 2005
- Gulf Air
- Jetstar Asia Airways - commenced in Jan 2006
- KLM Northwest
- Lufthansa - commenced on Sept 1, 2001
- Malaysian Airlines
- Royal Nepal Airlines
- Singapore Airlines - commenced on August 28, 2003
- Sri Lankan Airlines - commenced on on July 15, 2002
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will contribute 13% equity in the proposed Bangalore International Airport [BIAL] and will be the main consultant for the multi-crore project. This was finalized at a meeting between the officials of the Karnataka government and the Civil Aviation Ministry in Delhi. Karnataka Industrial Development Corporation will have 13% stake in the project.
Some of the actively involved people in this prestigious project are,
- Albert Brunner, CEO, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL)
- Chief Secretary of Karnataka
- N.R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys Chairman (NRN resigned after Former-PM Deve Gowda went all over NRN)
- B.K. Das, Infrastructure Secretary
The state setup a commitee in August/Sept 2001 to negotiate the final deal with the promoters. The commitee was given a mandate to get the best value for money by exploring avenues of optimising project cost and reducing state support. The committee included,
- Krishna Kumar, Principal Secertary Infrastructure
- B.K. Das, Princial Secreatary Urban Development
- H.S. Kempanna, law secretary
- K. Jairaj, CEO BIAL
- Nasser Munjee, M.D., Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation
- Robert Wadel, President & CEO, Waddel Engineering Corporation [USA]
Some cool features of the airport are:
- Large upmarket shopping areas
- Multi cuisine restaurants
- Play areas and day care centres
The airport is about 34 Kms from Bangalore [Vidhan Soudha]. The airport's ground infrastructure plans are being reviewed by Infrastructure Secretary, National Highways Authority, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation and the Railways.
To make the commute smooth NH-6 and NH-7 [Bangalore-Hyd] are being coverted into a six-lane road. NHA has acquired the required land. Additional access roads which will run into Bellary road is being planned. The existing roads through Hoskote and Hebbal will be upgraded to a four-lane expressway, which will meet the airport road. See flyover details.
Overbridges will be built at all railway crossing on Bellary road. The government is confident of completing the project by 2003, the deadline is Jan 2004. The government signed an MoU with Malaysian company Ara Corp to build the express way.
Users are expected to pay a toll to use these expressways. The railways is planning a special shuttle from the Cantonment railway station to the airport. We hope the Cantonment railway station will be beautified in this process as it really stinks.
First Test Flight
On March 7, 2008 the first test flight took off from Bangalore HAL airport to BIAL. The flight was commanded by Deccan Captain Pratap Deshpande and First Office Ms. Hetal S. The Deccan flight was a brand new Airbus A320, which carried media persons and senior airline executives had 173 people on board and travelled 15 nautical miles and cruised at a low altitude all through. The test flight was delayed by one and a half hours!
On board, flight safety demonstrations were done by flight attendent Priyanka and passengers were assisted by the cabin cre of Gurpreet, Neha and Hina. On arrival the media were addresed by Albert Brunner.
User Development Fee
User Development Fee is levied to provide and maintain higher infrastructure quality and safety at the airport. This is charged to departing passengers, both domestic and international. According to the aviation ministry, charging a user development fee is part of the concession agreement for the development, construction, operation and maintenance of an airport. The fee is expected to be Rs 240 plus tax for domestic flights and Rs 520 plus taxes for international flights.
Reason For Delay In Opening BIAL
Few reasons for the postponing the launch date of BIAL,
- Politics: Each political party wants to show they care for the public by insisting the connecting roads to the new airport are better, only after that BIAL should be operational.
- DGCA identifies 59 safety irregularities in BIAL. For e.g.
- Delays in constructing of ATC facilities including control tower, technical block, office accommodation of AAI personnel
- Issues like electricity supply, house keeping, air-conditioning of the tower.
Hubli Airport
The Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation has decided to name the Hubli airport after Hindustani vocalist Dr Gangubai Hangal, in recognition of her contribution for music. This decision was taken on March 25, 2005 in Hubli. Karnataka.com sincerely hopes the government will keep up their word by naming the airport after this music legend and not change the name to some politician's or actor's name.
