Limited airspace concerns plague Bengaluru's second airport plan

Bengaluru: As plans for Bengaluru’s second airport gather speed, concerns over the limited availability of airspace in the city plague the state government. 

The Airport Authority of India’s (AAI) report on the upcoming airport highlights that the “aircraft movement will be constrained due to restricted airspace” at all three sites proposed by the government — two adjacent land parcels on Kanakapura Road near Harohalli, of 4,800 acres and 5,000 acres, and a 5,200-acre area on Kunigal Road near Nelamangala. 

“Bengaluru has too many establishments that have already established their claim over the airspace in the city. About half of Bengaluru’s airspace is under the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), almost going up to Coimbatore. In the north, it all comes under the air force station at Yelahanka. Their airspace apparently extends up to Hassan. So now, we have to specifically earmark airspace for the second airport,” a senior official from the industries ministry told DH. 

The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) faced similar concerns at the time of its establishment.

“A small portion of the airspace was earmarked for the airport back then. A similar thing needs to be done for the new airport. This remains a challenge, and we will require support from the defence sector. We’ll have to work out some kind of agreement where the defence sector can use the airspace at a particular time and height, while allowing us to make use of it the rest of the time,” the official said. 

To move ahead with the project at the proposed Kanakapura locations, the instrument flight procedures (IFPs) will depend on IFPs at HAL airport and TAAL airport in Hosur. For the Nelamangala location, it will be dependent on the IFPs of HAL, IAF-Yelahanka and KIA. 

Aircraft operations from Nelamangala location will hamper aircraft operations at the aforementioned three airports, thus restricting the capacity of the proposed airport, the report said. 

“We will follow due process with the committee of the defence ministry to get airspace,” Industries Minister M B Patil told DH. 

The runway length proposed for the greenfield airport is 4,500 m x 45 m for the primary runway and 4,000 m x 45 m for the secondary parallel runway. 

However, acquisition of land for the airport is not possible before getting regulatory clearance from the ministry of civil aviation, assessment and removal of obstacles as per the obstacle limitation surfaces (OLS) survey and mandatory no objection certificate (NOC) from the authorities concerned. 

The state government will need to conduct topographic and OLS surveys using aerial LiDAR technology. 

All three locations comprise both hard and soft rocky terrain, “presenting significant challenges during execution,” stated the AAI report.

While the locations near Kanakapura have hills on the eastern and western sides, the Nelamangala location features hills on the north-eastern and western sides. 

These obstacles must be “evaluated to determine whether they pose potential obstacles to safe air navigation. Any hill within the site boundary that is identified as an obstacle will require levelling,” said the report. The process will move forward once a consultancy firm takes up the project.