Siemens bags another order for Bangalore airport

New Delhi, Jul 27 (UNI) Siemens Ltd, alongwith Germany-based Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) has received a supplementary order worth Rs Euro 16 million from the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) for installation of technical systems.

This new order is in addition to the contract bagged by the company in 2005 to equip the new airport with the complete electrical, airfield lighting, IT and communications systems, passenger boarding bridges, escalators and elevators, a baggage handling system as well as the power supply equipment and a building security and automation system, a company statement said.

Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) has received an order to install additional technical solutions to manage the enlarged capacities at the airport.

As a result of this, the airport will be able to serve eleven million passengers a year in the first stage of the project more than double the number originally planned.

Even with this revision to enlarge capacities, the completion of the airport remains scheduled for April 2008.

The first stage of the Bangalore airport project was originally designed to handle approximately 4.5 million passengers. However, a recent study commissioned by BIAL forecast a turnover of around 6.7 million passengers in 2008, the year the airport is scheduled to open.

Based on these studies, BIAL in April 2006, with a view to accommodate larger number of passengers, looked forward to expand the baggage handling system. The terminal building is also being enlarged.

The new international airport is being built in Devanahalli, around 30 kilometers north of Bangalore. In the final stage of the project, more than 40 million passengers and a million tons of airfreight are to be handled each year.

The planned airport is India's first private-public partnership in this branch of industry, with 74 per cent of the investment in the BIAL joint venture coming from the private sector.

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