If Karnataka sends second airport plan, will take it up: Centre

New Delhi/Chennai: Union Minister for Civil Aviation K Rammohan Naidu on Monday said that if the Karnataka government sends a proposal seeking permission for a second international airport at Bengaluru, it will be taken forward, while terming Tamil Nadu’s proposal for a site in Hosur as “tricky”.

Replying to former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s (JD-S) question in the Rajya Sabha during the Question Hour, the minister said, “One common agreement is that Bengaluru airport is getting saturated. There are reports that the Karnataka government is also looking for setting up another airport in Bengaluru. If the proposal comes from the Karnataka government to set up another airport at Bengaluru, we will take it forward,” the Minister said.

Gowa said the Karnataka government has already submitted a proposal for another airport. The Centre must prioritise the construction of a second airport in Bengaluru. “The international airport that I approved during my tenure is now struggling to handle the massive passenger traffic. Therefore, another airport is essential for Bengaluru,” he added.

When the issue of congestion at Bengaluru airport and the need for an airport in Hosur in neighbouring Tamil Nadu raised by AIADMK MP M Thambidurai, Naidu proposed that the Tamil Nadu government, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) and the Union government sit across the table and take a decision on the exclusive airport for Hosur.

“The Tamil Nadu government has been actively pursuing to put up an airport in Hosur. While we are trying to assist, the challenge is the concessionaire agreement (that the Centre signed with BIAL that no airport should come up within a radius of 150 km till 2033), which is becoming tricky,” Naidu said.

“This is a matter which the BIAL, Tamil Nadu government and the Government of India, everyone has to sit together, discuss, and come up with a solution. We will be proactively (pushing for it),” the minister added.

Thambidurai complained that BIAL was standing in the way of the Tamil Nadu government building a new airport in Hosur.

Naidu’s comments come at a time the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is studying in detail two locations shortlisted by Tamil Nadu to house the airport for Hosur after surveying five locations in and around Hosur.

The Tamil Nadu government is going ahead with shortlisting the sites as it believes building a new facility will take at least six to seven years and by then, the concessionaire agreement might expire. The sources also said the TN government is in touch with BIAL for the past three years and might be willing to work with it.

Karnataka’s Heavy and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil, during his recent meeting with the industrialists at Delhi, informed that his department has already shortlisted three places for setting up a second airport at Bengaluru and surrounding areas and final decision would be taken soon.