The Hindu Business Line : Bangalore intl airport project set for takeoff

THE Bangalore international airport project has come closer than ever before to taking off, with BIAL, the holding company, getting possession of some 3,884 acres on a 30-year lease.

BIAL expects the last milestone - the financial agreement - to happen shortly and is confident of getting the project off the ground during this month.

The debt pact with ICICI-led lender group is now said to be a matter of time. The company had earlier planned the financial closure by March 31.

Karnataka State Industrial and Investment Development Corporation (KSIIDC) signed the lease deed in favour of the company for the land at Devanahalli, near the city.

With this, construction of the Rs 1,334-crore project is set to begin, according to a KSIIDC release.

As a special gesture, the State Government has exempted the company from paying stamp duty on the registration.

The lease period is renewable for another 30 years, according to the release issued by the KSIIDC Managing Director, Mr I.M. Vittala Murthy, who inked the lease deed with the BIAL CEO, Mr Albert Brunner.

Mr Murthy said that the land transfer was the culmination of the land acquisition process that began five years ago.

The lease deed had been pending after the State inked the land lease agreement with BIAL in January this year.

It also recently signed two other relatively minor pacts: the CNS/ATM (communication, navigation systems and air traffic management) agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI); and the O&MS (operations and maintenance services) agreement with consortium partner, Unique Zurich Airport.

The EPC contract, which was renewed recently, will enable the contractors to start preparing the ground and raise boundary walls of the airport site.

The contract is with L&T, Siemens India and its German parent.

Siemens and L&T are two of the three private promoters of the airport project along with Unique Zurich Airport in a 40:17:17 equity ratio.

In the meantime, all the loose ends are being tied up, officials said. This includes revalidating the shareholders' agreement - which expired in September 2003.

BIAL officials have set themselves a 33-month deadline to complete the project.According to State officials, the Government has also provided an alternative location close to the airport site for a housing colony for AAI employees.

There was minor setback over the location and it was decided not to use up land already committed to BIAL for commercial development.

The colony of houses would now come up on part of the 400 acres abutting the airport. This happens to be the same portion of land earlier withheld by the Government from transferring to BIAL.

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