Karnataka seeks formal clearance for Hassan airport

New Delhi, Sept 10 (UNI) Karnataka Public Works Minister H D Revanna today met top officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry to speed up the process of formal clearance for the Hassan Airport Project under Public-private partnership.

The minister told newspersons, after his meeting, that the work on the airport project was progressing on the 518 acres of acquired land and the government had provided funds to the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for acquiring 460 acres for making the airport worthy of receiving higher capacity passenger and cargo aircrafts.

The airport complex would include an institute to train pilots and facilities for repairing and overhaul of aircraft entailing an overall expenditure of over 2,000 crore.

He said work had commenced as there was no need need to wait for the in-principle approval as the Ministry had granted techno-economic feasibility for the airport.

However, additional land would be needed as the runway itself would be 3.5 km long, he added.

Hassan was considered an ideal location for the airport as back as 1957 because the area was geographically centrally located in the state and the conducive for receiving aircrafts from almost all parts of the state. Even Bangaluru airport suffered fog-related problems, resulting in delayed arrivals and departures, he said.

The Minister later called on Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav seeking to impress him on the need to run passenger trains between Bangaluru and Mangalore. He said the Railways had promised to start the train service during Mahamastakabhishekha itself.

Asked for the reluctance to run passenger trains, he said the people thought the road transport lobby was a major reason for the delay. There were over 200 buses plying between Bangaluru and Mangalore and they obviously fear the prospects of becoming jobless, once the Railways restored Bangaluru-Mangalore train service. The Railways have commenced goods traffic but not passenger trains, he pointed out.

UNI