Bengaluru: Large and Medium Scale Industries Minister, R V Deshpande informed the Legislative Council on Friday that the upgradation of the Mangaluru airport as an international airport had been held up due to differences over cost sharing with the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Replying to Capt Ganesh Karnik of the BJP, the minister agreed that the airport had to be upgraded to international standards, providing connectivity to important destinations to compete with Kerala which had four airports, but said it was upto the Airports Authority of India( AAI) to take a call on it as the airport belonged to it.
“The chairman of the AAI on April 20 asked the state to share the cost of upgrading the airport and provide the land required free of cost. At a meeting held last week between the chief secretary and the chairman in Bengaluru the AAI provided four options for expansion but all four were impractical,” the minster said, adding that as the AAI had made no commitment on bearing the construction and land cost, CM Siddaramaiah had asked for a feasibility study for expanding it on PPP basis. But the study done by iDeck did not find the idea feasible and now the Ministry of Civil Aviation had been asked to furnish details of the approved master plan for the airport along with a commitment from the AAI that it was ready to bear all the cost involved, he explained.
The government had however, decided to examine the possibility of extending the airport’s runway over an additional 33 acres to meet the mandatory requirement for safe landing of aircraft, he added.
