The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the stakeholders of Bangalore?s new international airport, to re-negotiate on the capacity and connectivity issues to the airport in the next 12 weeks.
With the latest litigation around the airport thus settled, the ?Bengaluru International Airport? in Devanahalli finally opened to commercial traffic on Friday night, as the city?s old airport, run by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) suspended civilian air traffic.
The court directed the airport?s builder-consortium Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), the Central government, Airports Authority of India and the Karnataka government to ?explore the possibility of bringing about concession agreements after renegotiations in 12 weeks?. After renegotiations, if it were concluded that public interest was served better by keeping the HAL airport open, it had to be re-opened `immediately?, the court said.
Two public interest litigations filed at the High Court?s vacation bench had sought a stay on the closure of the HAL airport, citing insufficient capacity at the new airport, connectivity issues and lack of proper re-negotiations regarding retention of the HAL airport for smaller aircrafts of up to 80 seats.
BIAL said that the international airport was built to handle 9.5 million passengers, but was capable of handling 14 million passengers annually. The consortium had already sent proposals to the Central government for expansion of the runway, it said. State government representatives told the court that connectivity issues to the airport were being sorted out and would improve with time.
While allowing the international airport to open as planned, the court lashed out at the state and Central governments for lack of proper planning to build sufficient connectivity to the airport.