BIAL not ready to relent on concessional agreement: CEO

Bangalore, May 21 (UNI) The private promoters of greenfield Bengaluru International Airport has told the Union and Karnataka government that they will not relent from the concessional agreement and allow operation of two airports in the city.

Briefing newspersons on the eve of the start of operations tomorrow, Bangalore International Airports Limited (BIAL) CEO Albert Brunner said that the details of the re-negotations held a few days ago had not been kept under wraps. "We told the two governments that we cannot go back on the agreement and accept the operation of HAL airport which will be closed on May 23 once the operations begins in BIA.

"However, the chapter is not yet closed as it is in the High Court", he added.

Dismissing arguments that the BIA will not be able to handle the increasing passenger traffic, Mr Brunner said that the new airport can handle upto 15 million people per year without any expansion.

"Single runway is not a problem, it can handle upto 30 million passenger flow. We expect the passenger traffic of 12 to 12.5 million in the first year," he added.

Currently it was 11 million in HAL airport.

He said that the passenger growth was expected to be in the range of 20 to 30 per cent per annum, but it will not be a problem for BIA to handle this alone and running of two airports will not be viable, he claimed.

BIA was promoted by a consortium of Zurich International Airport Limited, Siemens, L&T and other private sector companies. The Karnataka state holds a stake of 26 per cent. Union government is also a stake holder in this project.

The greenfield airport was spread over 4,000 acres and the first phase of the airport has been built with an investment of Rs 2470 Crore.

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