A multi-disciplinary team from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will be visiting the State on Monday to hold discussions with the State government officials and also inspect the three locations which have been identified for Bengaluru’s second international greenfield airport.
The government has already identified three locations for the proposed airport of which two are on Kanakapura Road and one on the Nelamangala-Kunigal Road.
Sources said that the AAI would hold discussions with State government officials, and the Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (KSIIDC) would be making a presentation on technical details of the proposed airport before the delegation.
Documents such as revenue map of these sites, weather reports of the last 10 years, detailed images of the sites’ geographic features, maps from the Survey of India, and other operational details would be presented before the AAI officials.
This will be followed by a visit to the three shortlisted locations during which the AAI team is expected to inspect the sites and decide whether they are suitable for the development of a green field airport.
“The AAI team’s visit is scheduled between April 7 and 9. During the visit to the proposed sites they would be looking into various technical aspects like weather, terrain, connectivity etc,” the sources said.
They added that after the AAI team submitted its report on the three sites, the State government would conduct a feasibility report and finalise the location for the upcoming airport. The KSIIDC had already paid a fee of ₹1.21 crore to AAI for this purpose.
“The proposed airport has to have flat land which is the foremost requirement, there should be no mountains in the approach area, another aspect is weather as there cannot an airport where there is consistently bad weather. There should not be too many waterbodies around the airport. There should be good surface connectivity, not just roads but also rail,” said an aviation expert on the key requirements for an international greenfield airport.
The second airport for Bengaluru can only become operational after May 2033, due to an agreement between the Bangalore International Airport Ltd., which is the operator of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
As per the agreement, no airport can operate within an aerial distance of 150 km of KIA before its 25th anniversary which falls in May 2033.
Published – April 06, 2025 09:13 pm IST
