Bangalore International airport to be completed before April 2008 deadline

The Bangalore International Airport, which is the country’s first-ever Greenfield airport, will be completed within its deadline of April 2008.

According to Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) Chief Executive Officer Albert Brunner, about 23 per cent of the work on the international airport being constructed at Devanahalli, about 30 kms from Bangalore, had been completed within one year of project taking off. “By the end of the year, the progress of work is expected to touch 70 per cent”, he said.

The international airport is slowly taking shape and flights are expected to become operational before April 2008, the deadline set for the project to complete.

Brunner’s comments came during Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s visit to the airport site for an inspection. After visiting the excavation site, terminal block and the four-km-long runway, Yediyurappa, donning a safety helmet, expressed satisfaction over the progress of work.

The BIAL has also started work on the redesigned terminal block, which has been expanded to accommodate more passenger traffic. “By 2010, we are expecting 8.5 million passengers a year, a figure, which we had earlier predicted only for 2020. Therefore, we have redesigned the terminal block and excavation for the redesigned terminal block has commenced”, Brunner said.

Due to the redesigning of the terminal block, the cost of the project has shot up from Rs 14 billion to Rs 19 billion.