Patel calls meet on April 29 to sort out B?lore airport issues

The opening of the Rs 2,500-crore new greenfield Bangalore airport may be delayed even further after the high court directive that the stakeholders including the Central government via the ministry of civil aviation, the government of Karnataka, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) should look at re-negotiating the concessions agreement signed by them.

The stakeholders will meet on April 29 under the chairmanship of the civil aviation minister Praful Patel to review the agreement and see if anything can be done about the two contentious issues. These include closure of the existing HAL airport and levy of user development fee (UDF) by the new airport.

?Based on the court directive we will go through the motions on April 29 and see if anything can be done,? Ashok Chawla, secretary with the civil aviation ministry said.

It will be negotiations of sorts, as the secretary also said that all the parties would have to offer some compromises and depending on those the concessions agreement may be essentially renegotiated.

A clearer picture is likely to at the beginning of next month by when the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) would issue a licence to the airport.

According to analysts and airline officials, the new airport is unlikely to be opened while the Karnataka elections are on. The first phase of elections in the state is expected to start on May 10 and then counting is expected to finish on May 26. ?It is only after the new government is in place will the new chief minister inaugurate the airport,? said one airline official, who did not want to be named.

But some ministry and AAI officials maintain that the new airport may open as scheduled on May 11 despite renegotiations as these will be concerned with the closure of the new airport that can reopen afterwards as well.

According to sources in the new BIAL airport, each day of closure is causing a loss of almost Rs 1 crore which essentially means the already 40 day loss has caused a loss of roughly around Rs 40 crore.