CM exhorts airline operators to chalk out plan

Bangalore, Dec 19: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today exhorted airline operators to chalk out their future plans keeping in view the developmental activities including proposed greenfield airports at Hassan, Shimoga, Gulbarga and Bijapur.

Addressing a meeting of the airline operators here, he said the state government had also decided to expand airports at Mangalore, Hubli and Belgaum, besides operationalising the Mysore and Bellary airports. The existing defence airports at Karwar and Bidar were going to be used for civilian operations and the state government was pursuing the matter with the Defence Ministry, he added.

He said the state would be placed as an important hub in the sector. Already the traffic from Bangalore airport had become the third busiest airport in terms of domestic traffic and fourth in temrs of total traffic. The traffic growth to Bangalore was 50 per cent in the current year as compared to the last year, he added hoping that the international airport at Devanahalli would be ready by April 2008 as scheduled.

A presentation at the meeting revealed that the Bangalore airport was the fastest growing among the six metros. The traffic was expected to be around 10 million by 2010.

UNI