State Govt to acquire land for airport runway

The Karnataka government will take steps to acquire 33 acres of land around the Mangaluru airport at Bajpe for extension of the runway, Industries Minister R V Desphande informed the Legislative Council on Friday.

Replying to a query by Ganesh Karnik (BJP), Desphande said the state government has written to the Ministry of Civil Aviation that the expenditure for the expansion will have to borne by Airport Authority of India to which it belongs to. The government has already provided land for construction of a new terminal building.

Extension of the existing runway will help in meeting the critical mandatory requirement for safe landing of aircrafts, the minister said.