Minister M B Patil.
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: The construction of a second international airport for Bengaluru is certain, as the city needs another airport with an annual capacity of 100 million passengers, Industries and Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil said on Wednesday.
At a media briefing, Patil also said the planned airport in Hosur comes within Kempegowda International Airport (KIA)'s exclusivity clause, which says no new airport can be built within 150 km of KIA till 2033. “KIA, the country's third busiest airport after Mumbai and Delhi, has an annual capacity of 52 million passengers and 0.71 million tonnes of cargo. Further expansion could optimise the figures to 110 million passengers and 1.10 million tonnes of cargo,” he said.
“The airport is expected to reach its peak handling capacity by 2035, both in terms of passengers and cargo. Thereafter, there will be no scope for further building runways, as it already has two,” he explained.
Patil said a land parcel of 4,500-5,000 acres will be required for the proposed airport, and that options for probable sites include Kanakapura Road, Mysuru Road, Magadi, Doddaballapur, Dobbspet and Tumakuru. The airport will be on the lines of new ones being built in Navi Mumbai and Jewar in Greater Noida.
Parameters which will be kept in mind include technical suitability for flight approach, which should have no hilly terrain or high-rise buildings, road, rail connectivity etc, convenience of use like distance and time and availability of contiguous land with less settlement.
Regarding Tamil Nadu’s decision to build an airport at Hosur, Patil said their decision would not affect Karnataka. "Tamil Nadu's announcement came after ours (to build a second Bengaluru airport). We can’t question that. But the exclusivity clause applies to them also,” he said.
He said that if the state government begins the process of planning and building a second airport now, it can be ready by 2033, when the exclusivity clause ends.