There has been a long pending demand not just from Bangaloreans, but from across South Indian states and the thousands of people who regularly travel to and from the Silicon Valley of India: reopen the old Bangalore airport, run by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL).
In fact, it seems like a no-brainer. The southern metropolis’s primary airport is the Kempegowda International Airport run by Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), which is around 40km from the city centre in Devanahalli. It is also on the other side of town from Electronics City, where the town’s flourishing IT industry is located. The worsening traffic situation has made it a maddening rush every time someone has to go catch a flight.
In contrast, the old airport in Vimanapura is centrally located to downtown, as well as many of the dynamic localities of Bengaluru. HAL has also kept the complex well-oiled with test sorties as well as military usage.
Well, it is not so simple. For Bangaloreans and even travellers to that city, there is good news and bad news.
The good news is that the city will—though it will be later rather than sooner—get a second airport, not to mention the fact BIAL intends to even go for a third terminal once the two-year-old Terminal 2 nears capacity.
However, that second airport is likely to be a greenfield project, going by moves from the civil aviation ministry. Last summer, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had conducted a feasibility study of three locations for the proposed second airport—two areas in Kanakapura and one land tract on the Kunigal road near Nelamangala.
Of course, the project is high on the agenda, according to civil aviation minister Rammohan Naidu, with the state industries minister M.B. Patil concurring at a meeting some time ago. In fact, Patil had recently expressed frustration at the project report being delayed.
While many would have liked the old HAL airport to reopen, it may not due to legal and logistical reasons, explained HAL chairman and managing director D.K.Sunil at the Wings India show in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
“Till 2033, BIAL has an exclusivity license (meaning the present primary airport has to be the only civil airport operating in the city as per contract),” he explained.
“Parallely, HAL airport has a lot of military training programmes,” he added, pointing out the traffic congestion the HAL area already faces, which he quipped, “may become worse on this stretch!”
The HAL airport has doubled as both a military/scientific airport as well as a civil one for about 60 years before BIAL’s Kempegowda airport started operations in the summer of 2008.
There have been several proposals for the old airport down the years, right from making it a hub for low-cost airlines to a private jet aerodrome, and recently, as Bengaluru’s secondary airport. But the authorities seem to be content letting HAL continue as a defence establishment, and instead look elsewhere for the city’s second airport—for which land has already been finalised similarly for Chennai.
