Patchy and out of place. That’s exactly what the Karnataka state legislature panel feels about the Bangalore International Airport.
Patchy and out of place. That’s exactly what the Karnataka state legislature panel feels about the Bangalore International Airport (BIA). On Monday, the joint House committee headed by D Hemachandra Sagar, set up to examine whether the BIA conformed to international standards, submitted its report recommending strong measures to improve the Bangalore airport. DNA broke the story on Monday (December 21).
Here are the 10 things the committee wants:
Reopen the HAL airport:
The panel wants the state government to consider the Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) report recommending the re-opening of HAL airport.
Why: This will reduce the burden on BIA and ease the current mess.
Chuck user development fee (UDF): The panel wants the Centre to withdraw the order allowing BIAL to charge UDF of Rs260 from passengers.
Why: The BIAL has failed to provide adequate facilities to users.
Initiate recovery of Rs100 crore: Immediate action should be taken to recover Rs100cr drawn by BIAL in the form of Central VAT concessions.
Why: The BIAL has done little to substantiate the concessions
Plug all the loopholes: Encourage local agencies and consider them first for airport contracts. Appoint a regulator in the aviation sector to assess the infrastructure costs mentioned by private players.
Why: This will check mismanagement by private players and also make them more accountable.
Stop undue profiteering
The state should be more careful in committing facilities to private players like BIA at public cost without any controlling power. It’s time to enact laws to end undue profiteering at the expense of the state.
Why: The public private partnership (PPP) model can go horribly wrong and BIA is a classic example. They have come up with patchy, non-scientific and thoughtless solutions, leaving the public high and dry.
Control airport land use
The state should ensure that the allotment of land for airport projects is done in a phased manner concurrent with actual utilisation. Before the renewal of any agreement, the government should review the factual positions.
Why: The state government acquired the earmarked 4390.41 acres of land for the airport project and allotted 4,009 acres to BIAL. This land, till date, has not been fully put to use.
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