Karnataka Cabinet clears ₹196-crore greenfield airport at Hassan

Our Bureau Updated - June 21, 2021 at 10:18 PM.

Airport is seen as an exercise to decongest Bengaluru, push industries

Airplane with downing chart. 3D rendering

The Karnataka Cabinet on Monday approved the construction of a greenfield domestic airport at Hassan.

The airport will promote industries in the region and decongest Bengaluru.

Basavaraj Bommai, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Home Minister, told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that the airport construction works are being taken up at a cost of ₹196.35 crore and will be in two phases.

The airport was a long pending demand from the region, conceived by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in 2007. The construction work was delayed as many power lines had to be shifted. Now in the last one year progress was made in clearing all hurdles in the 2-3 km radius of the airport site.

The foundation stone for the airport was laid by Deve Gowda in 2007, when the JDS-BJP coalition was in power was to be taken up on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model and Jupiter Aviation Services Ltd. had signed an agreement with the Sstate government. The private partner did not commence the work as it wanted more land to build the airport. The agreement was cancelled during the previous JDS-Congress government.

Contingency fund

The Cabinet approved amendments to the Karnataka Contingency Fund and plans to bring the amendment by way of an ordinance - The Karnataka Contingency Fund Amendment ordinance 2021.

The minister said “This is being done for utilisation of funds to handle Covid-19 pandemic in the State. Earlier, the Act had a spending/drawing limit of ₹500 crore. Now with the amendment ₹2,500 crore can be spent for emergencies.”

World Bank

Bommai said today’s Cabinet also approved ₹1,500 crore World Bank funding for the assisted Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) in phase II and Phase III in respect of 58 dams.

The Cabinet also accorded approval to take up three lift irrigation projects worth ₹1,252 crore cleared by Nabard.

The Rs ₹415 crore project is related to filling up 94 tanks in Honnali taluk in Davangere district by lifting water from Tungabhadra. Rs ₹670 crore is for filling up 74 tanks in Kudligi assembly in Bellary district by lifting water from Tungabhadra and Rs ₹167 crore for augmentation of tanks under Sasvehalli lift irrigation scheme near Honnali taluk in Davangere in two stages.

Published on June 21, 2021 16:36