Design changes, lack of facilities at new Bangalore airport alleged by legislators – probe ordered

Bangalore: Troubles for the two-month old Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL) never seem to end. The Rs2500 crore ($625-million) Greenfield project, which faced a number of delays before opening for service, now faces a probe by State legislators' panel over alleged deviation in design and lack of sufficient facilities for passengers and visitors.

The airport had been constructed by a consortium of Unique Zurich Airport, Siemens Project Ventures and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and has the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Karnataka government as minority stakeholders.

"There has been deviation from the architecture, style and design. It does not add to the image of Bangalore. There are no proper facilities for passengers and visitors," Congress legislator DK Shivakumar, who raised the issue in the state assembly, informed the media last week.

Shivakumar's charges have received support from other political parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party government has agreed to set up a committee of members from both the assembly and the council to probe the issue.

"The design of the airport is different from what was approved," Shivakumar charged. Shivakumar is a former urban development minister, and so claims that he knows what he is talking about. He also said that the airport could still be improved and that the proposed legislator's panel would look into these aspects.

Last week a State minister, Katta Subramanya Naidu, called the new airport, which is located about 40 km north of the city centre, "a poor cousin to other airports of international standards, including the New Delhi and Hyderabad airports."