The Civil Aviation ministry today has requested BIAL the promoters of the new Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) to delay the launch of the airport to end May.
Most likely it will be May 29, 2008.
I offer my sincerest sympathies to the entire team at BIAL and its concessionaires. They have put in hard work to bring the project to fruition, and their efforts are getting compromised by the politics of elections, and the need of the Government to have a public display of their “achievements”.
I also understand that the meeting was very positive on another topic of great interest to me. The continuation of operations at the existing HAL airport in parallel with BIA.
The meeting explored many options, and I was told by sources that the BIAL representatives came to the meeting with a positive attitude.
I have explained in my previous article the merits of keeping HAL airport open, along with the benefits for BIAL as a company.
There is another meeting scheduled for May 12, and I hope BIAL continues this positive attitude and accepts a deal that will keep all sides happy.