The Hindu Business Line : `Airport project to take off soon'

ICICI Bank, which is leading the lender consortium, will formally declare the financial closure of the Rs 1,334-crore airport project by this month-end.

Bangalore , June 23

WITH all the facilitations made by the State Government and the loose ends tied, Bangalore's new international airport project will be off the ground in a matter of days, the Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh, said today.

The State Bank of India on Wednesday gave guarantee for the Rs 350-crore, long-term State support or contingency loan to Bangalore International Airport Ltd.

ICICI Bank, which is leading the lender consortium, will formally declare the financial closure of the Rs 1,334-crore airport project by this month-end, he told reporters on his return from Delhi.

That would be the last green signal for the civil works to commence; the airport is to be built on some 4,000 acres of land at Devanahalli over the next 33 months by the Siemens Ventures-led consortium and the minority partners, Airports Authority of India and KSIIDC.

Mr Vinay Kumar, State's Principal Secretary, Infrastructure Development, said on June 10, the partners re-validated the shareholders' agreement which was originally signed in 2002 and lapsed in 2003.

"With these, all that was needed for the financial closure has been done," he said.

In April, BIAL was allowed to take up preliminary ground preparation work and its board cleared an expense of Rs 2 crore for this.

Once the last milestone was reached in the coming days, it would start raising the boundary wall, staff quarters and also set up its field office at the site some 40 km from the city.

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