Aviation minister Patel asks Bengaluru airport to double capacity

12 Jul 2008

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New Delhi: With the prospects of passenger and aircraft congestion already looming at the newly inaugurated Devanahalli airport near Bangalore, the civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, said he has asked the operating company Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) to start working on enhancing its capacity.

Patel told the media that he had asked the operator to ''double the terminal capacity in three years'' by constructing a ''mirror terminal,'' besides increasing capacity in the short term by extending the existing terminal. This could be achieved over the next eight months.

By a ''mirror terminal'' the minister meant a replica of the existing terminal.

The new airport, which finally commenced services on May 24, after repeated postponements, has a rated capacity of about 11 million passengers a year.

''The airport should be bigger. There is need to double the capacity in three years. In the interim, they should increase the capacity on the other side of the terminal so that they can handle more passengers. Unlike Hyderabad, Bangalore has space constraints in the present airport and this should be addressed immediately,'' Patel added.

The new airport, reportedly, is already reaching saturation figures and may overshoot its rated capacity this year itself. It may end up handling about 12 million passengers after one year of operations and may have to handle 18 million passengers by 2011.

On its part, BIAL is already configuring its plans. Recently, BIAL CEO, Albert Brunner, had stated that it would consider constructing a low cost terminal besides a second terminal and a second runway that it has already planned. This terminal is likely to have a capacity of 12 million and will cater to low cost airlines and could come up by 2009-end.

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