Teething troubles?

On September 1, Bangalore’s spanking new international airport completed 100 days of commercial operation. It would have been, in many ways, an important milestone for Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), a public-private venture with a Siemens-led consortium holding 76 per cent. Only, the project now finds itself in the midst of a simmering controversy.

It all started when Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa, whose government also completed 100 days in office in September, set the cat among the pigeons. On returning from a trip to the US recently, Yeddyurappa, comparing Bangalore airport with the best in the world, declared that “ it (BIA) is of very low quality.” That’s not the end of the story. Yeddyurappa also stated that he will ask the Centre to renegotiate the contract with BIAL and make the old HAL airport operational again. That would leave the city of seven million with two airports—one in the east (old) and another in the north (new). While there have been demands for keeping the HAL airport operational for short distance flights, the contract with BIAL (to which the state government is also a party) guarantees that Bangalore can have no other civilian airport to ensure the profitability of the new venture.

Coming from the head of the state, the remarks left BIAL executives crestfallen. BIAL CEO Albert Brunner has been at pains to explain to the media why the airport cannot be compared with those in Singapore, Shanghai or Hong Kong. His explanation in itself is revealing. Bruner says the money spent (Rs 2,470 crore) to build the Bangalore airport was just a fraction of what it took to build some of its much-admired counterparts abroad. Then, he points out that the Bangalore airport is still not operating at its peak capacity. It is capable of handling 32 Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) an hour but is getting only around 24 ATMs now. In terms of terminal capacity, too, the airport is yet to touch peak- hour traffic figures. The airport also plans to expand gradually. By July 2009, BIAL is expected to start work on the second phase, which will take another three to four years. This includes building a second terminal and a second runway.

This is not the first time that BIAL has run into trouble. The airport started operations in May after inordinate delays, to which Civil Aviation Ministry also contributed. The project has its admirers, too. Vijay Mallya, Chairman, Kingfisher Airlines, believes the new airport is truly world-class. “All those critics who said people would not fly short distances from Bangalore to Hyderabad, Chennai and Coimbatore have been proved wrong. It’s certainly a world class airport,” Mallya said on the eve of the launch of Kingfisher’s Bangalore-London flight. With the Chief Minister himself sparking off the controversy, clearly, the last word on the issue has not been said.

—K. R. Balasubramanyam