Bengaluru Airport to be a New Experience

Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), Bengaluru, that was inaugurated on May 24, 2008, has since then been serving air travellers flying to and from Bengaluru. However, it is now bursting at the seams. Soon after the airport was commissioned, it was estimated that the annual passenger traffic would soon rise to 6.7 million whereas the airport was designed to handle just 4.5 million. There was clearly a need to expand the airport infrastructure to cope with the rapid growth in passenger and cargo traffic as also the steep rise in aircraft movements.

The first phase of the expansion project commenced in June 2011, three years after the airport was commissioned and was completed in December 2013. The size of the terminal building was increased substantially and the area for parking of airliners and general aviation aircraft was also doubled. These enhancements increased the passenger handling capacity to 25 million annually. But in 11 years after the commissioning of the airport, passenger traffic has reached 33 million in the year ending March 31, 2019.

Located North of Bengaluru on the Hyderabad highway, KIA was allotted 4000 acres of land in the area. It is now owned and operated by Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), a company formed on the Public Private Partnership model. Initially called Bangalore International Airport, it was later renamed after Kempe Gowda, the founder of the city of Bengaluru. Today, KIA is the first fully solarpowered airport in the country, an achievement being credited to the top solar power company in India called CleanMax Solar.

Before KIA came up, the city of Bengaluru was being served by a much smaller airport belonging to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Located in the heart of the city, HAL airport also housed the Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment, a major unit of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that is responsible for test flying IAF aircraft as also to train Test Pilots for the IAF. HAL airport thus had multiple users and was functioning under multiple control, an arrangement that invariably results in issues that ultimately affect flight operations of both civil and military aircraft. The civil side of HAL airport had space just enough to park six airliners. With demand for air travel growing continuously and there being no space available for expansion on the civil side of HAL airport, it was clear that the city of Bengaluru needed a new airport exclusively under civil control and management. In March 1991, S Ramanathan, the then Chairman of the then National Airports Authority of India, set up a panel to select the site for a new international airport for Bengaluru. The panel selected a location near Devanahalli where the State Government was prepared to allot the required land area. The State Government also made a proposal to build the new airport in partnership with a reputed company in the private sector. This proposal was approved by the Central Government in 1994.

However, it was only after a delay of five years that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the project was signed between AAI and the Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (KSIIDC). The MoU envisaged the project to be under the PPP model with the AAI and KSIIDC holding 26 percent stake and the selected private companies partnering in the project, holding the remaining 74 percent. In January 2001, the State Government created a new company and named it as Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL). By the end of 2001, Unique Zurich Airport, Siemens Project Ventures along with Larsen and Tubro entered into partnership for the project. However, once again plagued by procedural delays, construction of the new airport could only commence on July 2, 2005, after a delay of three and a half years. After several postponements, the new international airport for Bengaluru was finally inaugurated on May 24, 2008, more than 17 years after the first steps in this direction were initiated.

Currently, KIA has a single runway and passenger terminal, which handles both domestic and international operations. Construction of the second runway began in 2016 and is expected to be commissioned by September 2019. Construction of the second terminal has also commenced and is expected to be operational by 2021. With the completion of the huge capacity expansion project worth 13,000 crore that is underway, passengers transiting through KIA will finally have a congestion-free and pleasant experience at one of the leading airports in the country.