The Hindu Business Line : ‘Keep old airports at Bangalore, Hyderabad functional’

A Parliamentary panel has again asked the Government to take necessary steps to ensure that the existing airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad are kept functional. The old airports in these two cities were shut down after the greenfield airports there started operations.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in its report on the “modernisation” of airports, said it has learnt that the newly opened greenfield airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad are reported to have faced a decline in short-haul passenger traffic due to the fact that passengers have to travel a long distance to reach the new airports.

“Short-haul passengers are opting for other modes of transport such as train and road. The Committee will, therefore, like to draw the attention of the Government to its earlier report wherein it has recommended that the old airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad should be made operational,” the report, which was tabled in Parliament on August 20, states.

The panel has recommended that keeping the old airport at Bangalore functional would help augment capacity.

The Committee’s report further states that it has come to know that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has asked Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) to make arrangements for increasing its capacity in the next eight months since the construction of the second terminal would take another three years. BIAL is the promoter of the new airport in Bangalore.

“It would, therefore, be a better option to augment the capacity by restarting the functional existing HAL airport.

“In order to ensure that wide-winged aircraft be accommodated properly at the greenfield airport, the Government can take a policy decision to allow small aircraft and ATR to operate from the existing airport,” the Committee has argued.

Logistical problems

Official sources, however, felt that there could be logistical problems in segregating traffic between two airports in the same city.

“If a passenger was to travel from, say, Belgaum to Bangalore before connecting on to a flight to Mumbai, many issues will have to be tackled. Let us assume that the Belgaum flight is operated by an ATR and therefore will land at the old airport. “The flight to Mumbai will take off from the new greenfield airport. So not only the passengers but their bags also will have to move from one airport to the other, both of which are some distance away,” officials pointed out.

Besides, restarting operations from the old closed down airports in both the cities could also go against the contractual obligations entered into with the promoters of the greenfield airports.

The agreement stipulates that the existing airports close down for commercial traffic when the new greenfield airports become operational. In the case of Bangalore, the matter is currently before the High Court which is hearing a Public Interest Litigation seeking reopening of the old airport.

The new airport in Bangalore, being developed by a consortium led by Siemens, Germany, with Unique Zurich and Larsen & Toubro, began operations on May 24 this year, while the new Hyderabad airport, being developed by a consortium led by the GMR group started functioning on March 23.

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