RAMYA KRISHNAMURTHY writes from Bangalore: As if to prove the old adage that the shortest route to a man’s heart is through his stomach, both the stories churumuri has put out on the Bangalore International Airport have been about food. Not surprising perhaps for a site named after a snack.
The first story, by Arun Padaki, on the need for restaurants and outlets in the new airport to dish out local cuisine like Mysore pak and jolada rotti; and the second, an anonymous piece, taking potshots at Kannada activists demanding that ragi mudde be served on planes taking off from the new hawai adda.
I suppose adult men have their little kinks and are free to exhibit them, but with less than two months to go before the first planes take off and land, surely there are more important issues of the mind, body and State than these admittedly important issues of the heart, about the new airport?
Some of the issues confronting the airport have been obvious for a while now:
1) With just weeks left, the approach road to the new airport is not ready and is not going to be. Eight years after it was decided to locate the new airport at Devanahalli, and four years after the concession agreement was signed and real work began on it, somebody forgot to build a clean, fast, well-lit road.
As Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha writes in today’s Mint, it would be fitting if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, when he comes to inaugurate the new airport, drives down to it instead of parachuting into it by helicopter like all VVIPs fearful of reality:
“… travel like the average passenger, toiling from Rajajinagar through West of Chord Road, battling the trucks across Peenya, getting stuck at the Yeshwantapur railway crossing, stop-starting across the 26km highway stretch sliced by 23 junctions with tractors and bicyclists and pedestrians, before bouncing over a 4km dust-track to finally get to the spanking new airport.”
How could three State governments—of S.M. Krishna, Dharam Singh and H.D. Kumaraswamy—of one of India’s most reform-minded States have ignored this small detail, when none of them could ever utter the letters IT without suffixing it with BT?
And how could the international airport authorities themselves? Are they already counting their cash so as to care about passenger amenities and comfort? Was N.R. Narayana Murthy oversensitive to quit as BIAL chief when H.D. Deve Gowda questioned his contributions, or just smart given the kind of bozos he was dealing with?
2) The second issue is of capacity. The single runway at the new airport was planned to service 10 million passengers per annum, a figure which consultants said would be reached by 2010. That figure was expected to go up to 11.3 million passengers per annum by 2015.
As Ramanathan writes, with Bangalore passenger traffic having already crossed 10 million in 2008,
“…the new airport will be running to full capacity the day it opens! Even if work on a second runway begins right away, it cannot get operational for another three years—during which time another 10 million passengers can be added to Bangalore’s demand, with no airport or runway to service them.”
However, both these issues pale in front of what I believe is the stunning arrogance of a project that is billed as India’s first “Public-Private Partnership” airport towards the greater common good—of the public not the private.
The first is BIAL’s insistence that the existing HAL Airport be closed as per the terms of the contract that no new airport shall be operational in a 150-kilometre radius. If this is truly a “Public-Private Partnership”, how difficult is it for the State, as an instrument of the Public, to alter the terms of the contract to allow the old airport to function till at least a second or third runway is built at the new airport?
More importantly, when even a nursery child knows that India needs more, not less, infrastructure, who are the netas and babus—and industry visionaries—who willingly allowed existing infrastructure to be shut down in a manner which is only designed to help the consortium to rake in millions while a City bleeds?
If BIAL refuses to allow the old airport to function, are Bangalore’s titans—Narayana Murthy downwards—who are always wailing about infrastructure, willing to go on, say, a hunger strike in the name of the City?
The second issue is of “user development fees” which the Bangalore International Airport proposes to levy from all passengers taking off from the airport. “User development fees” for an airport without a connecting road is an obvious irony, and BIAL wants to fleece Rs 675 from each embarking domestic passenger and Rs 955 from each international passenger. Even if 5 million passengers take off, that’s a sizeable number per annum.
And this when the new Hyderabad International Airport, which will open just a few days before Bangalore’s, has expressly decided not to charge any such “user development fees”. Appeals from the Civil Aviation Ministry to BIAL not to levy the user fees have fallen on deaf ears, quite unlike in Hyderabad where the developers, the desi GMR, has decided to acquiesce. Why?
Yes, local food and local jobs are valid issues, as I am sure the local language on the signboards will soon be, but surely we need to discuss how in a so-called “Public-Private Partnership” all the advantages seem to be so weighted that only the private partners seem set to have all the fun at the expense of the public partners?
As Ramesh Ramanathan writes aptly:
“Welcome to the most underdesigned, underconnected, woeful piece of infrastructure that is the face of new India to the world. Maybe we can harness a new source of renewable energy in India: “angry citizen energy”. It’s available in plenty, and being replenished every day by our governments.”
You allow so high percentage of FDI in domestic and international scale airports (among other “ports”) to this country, this is what you’re destined to witness I guess.
Of course this goes without mentioning that the fact is aggravated to such magnitudes because of the presence of a very (ir)responsible, (ir)rational and (un)structured governance at the top of it all.
A similar voice about the situation arising in Karnataka seems congruent here and that is Karnataka seems to be closely following on the footsteps (wrong ones) of India, doing the same mistakes of “hittala gida maddalla” kind, welcoming foreign sources of establishment when you have an university at home to achieve the same! Now what else will these “invaders” do when they are given the plate and asked to eat whatever is on it. Will the allocate a major portion of that stuff to the guy who gave them the plate, or to the guy who made the plate!? Ridiculous!
Simply said, all along in this century, Karnataka has become prey to all the (mis-)administration of the Indian government(s) – be it in FDI, or infrastructure, or fund/natural-resource allocation.
i really wonder why they didnt include the approach road laying as part of the whole PPP model, didnt they know where the airport would come up?, I am sure something (read: half done job on road laying and which will just hold out till the VIPs have come and gone ) will happen before the airport opens
Considering that in the last 3.5 years, (approx since work on the airport began), we have had utterly shoddy governance generally (thanks to coalition politics) that it is hardly surprising (or even the fault of the BIAL) that an important road benefitting the people of Bangalore has been ignored. Also given the shabby treatment given to the last CM who gave a sh!t about Bangalore infrastructure, it would have been shocking to say the least, if this had been done.
As regards user development fees, I will still wait to see how long GMR will agree not to charge UDF before laying blame on BIAL. We have to get used to the idea that if we want good infrastructure, we will have to pay for its use. “Free” infrastructure funded entirely by taxpayer money is a thing of the past for various reasons, and to expect private quality (for us) with public money (with someone else’s money) is wishful.
Plus, given the horrid experience of Cogentrix and Enron in Dabhol, casually breaking contract terms will only make more people hesitant in investing in Indian infrastructure projects. If airline companies (who are also affected by the HAL airport closure + UDF) join with the people in putting pressure on BIAL to compromise on these, perhaps we can see the benefits. Expecting only the government to “sort it out” is pointless.
Ramya here shows the typical Indian attitude towards honouring business contracts. Hey…. the govt won’t implement what was its responsibility (laying access roads, rails) and so lets screw the private companies for that. Lets get the “public pressure” on BIAL to alter the contract. Mobocracy at its best. Did you ever realise that there are TWO different entities here or like a typically illiterate mix up the BIAL with the state government??
The judiciary should not get involved. It is a straight business contract and the public must suffer, if it has to, to elect a government like this.
Whoever may be raking in the moolah, Air passengers of Bangalore are in for one big trouble.
Think of crossing all those 25 or so junctions in the kind of irritating bumper to bumper traffic of the city. One will go mad.
If one wishes to catch the flight in time, he/she should stay overnight in a hotel near the new airport, eating Mysooru paaku, Jolada Rotti and of course Ragi mudde. No thank you, Sir.
We should offer a few of these politicians and bureaucrats responsible for agreeing to these terms as “nara bali” in the inauguration ceremony. That might make things better.
I am sure there are ways to circumvent this exclusive airport contract. HAL owns the current airport and only the civilian operations are handled by AAI. Nothing prevents HAL to offer the airport and facilities to “charter operators” which are not bound by law to use any particular airport. We
might see a few of the domestic carriers register charter subsidiaries and sell tickets as “charter fees”. They will be OK as long as they don’t publish fares and schedules.
A passenger will call a phone number to “charter” the aeroplane, and the operator will tell the passenger that “coincidentally” there is a flight leaving at 12pm on the day he/she wants the airplane, which is already “chartered” by 50 other people, and would he/she please mind “sharing” the costs? Of course! What luck!
Just the announcement of such services will make everyone involved sit up and notice what the public really wants. There will be a new contract very quickly.
@ Alok: “If we want good infrastructure, we will have to learn to pay for its use” is textbook hogwash. If only those who can pay are entitled to infrastructure, we would be a very skewed country.
@ Goldstar: I am all for honoring contracts. All I am questioning is the absence of any kind of vision beyond the immediate term on all sides. Foreign consortiums are expected to bring more to the table by virtue of their experience and foresight. We are seeing little of it here.
Charging development fees without providing amenities is a rip off. This should be fought tooth and nail by the government.
But I doubt the government will do anything. Devanhalli was initially rejected as a unsuitable place to build a airport by the AAI survey’s conducted. But since our Mannina Maga had massive benaami property holdings in and around devanhalli, he made the then civil aviation minister C M Ibrahim (a cycle shop owner from bhadravathi, who mysteriously rose to be the civil aviation minister under deve gowdas premiership in the National affront govt) accept the airport construction at Devanhalli.
JD-S cares a diddly squat about the approach road to the airport and SM Krishna for all his forward looking policies did not see this infrastructure issue looming but was happy to appoint his crony NRN as the chairman of the BIAL.
The state BJP leaders do not have the testicular fortitude to take up an important issue like this and are busy fighting for the granite quarrying rights in bellary.
End result is that BIAL airport will suck from day one and the users of this facility are made to cough up money for non existing infrastructure.
“Yes, local food and local jobs are valid issues, as I am sure the local language on the signboards will soon be, but surely we need to discuss how in a so-called “Public-Private Partnership” all the advantages seem to be so weighted that only the private partners seem set to have all the fun at the expense of the public partners?”
Ramya Madam, thanks for bringing to our attention that there is no road to Bengalooru airport, that user development fees is high and unwarranted, and that HAL airport closing down is not for the public good. Wow!! so good, na!! without Ramya madam pointing this out, the whole world would have been ignorant about this.
And, what is the point in talking about local food, local language, local jobs. Who cares about local people anyways when we have got our software jobs and airports to fly out to the west? And there is ofcourse our regular English media to talk about local food, local language, local jobs.
Why should Churumuri, which is “ah! so different”, talk about the regular things?
Ramya Madam – I completely agree with you.
To all those who complain of the distance and time taken to reach the NEW airport, please do remember that People in peenya / yelhanka / magadi road took the same time to reach the HAL airport.So why this complaining attitude now ? It is simply a case of lazy bums who stay close to the HAL airport whining .
All this is coming from the IT and Bt companies who benifit by the existing location.If Kiran Shaw does not want to go all the way to Devanahally SHE CAN charter a flight from her campus to where ever.If she cant afford it let she travel by the KSRTC volvo BUS , which can pick her up from residense / office.
There is a ORGANISATION which has brought in huge sums of money to build a airport and as business they need to recover the costs.If the government feels that the same is not feasible let them reimburse the total costs incurred till date along with the damages and compensation.May be the Murthy’s , Premjis and Shaw;s can all sell 10 % of thier share holding and reimburse the Government.WHAT SAY ???
@Ramya
We pay for power through our electricity bills.
We pay for piped water through our water bills.
We pay for communication through our phone bills.
Why should we expect that taxpayers everywhere will subsidize our air travel?
Yes, the Government does provide “free” piped water and electricity to certain sections of the population, but to claim it as a matter of right, in the context of an airport, when clearly the kind of people who *need* an airport are those who are likely to be able to afford paying an extra 600-1000 rupees, is taking it too far.
Arun Padaki’s name rings many bells. What name does he go by here?
@Ramya,
The Karnataka government (thru KSIIDC) owns 13% of the new airport. AAI owns another 13%.
If the govt feels like the contract is too much skewed towards BIAL, in the name of “public good”, it can buy out the remaining 76% stake from L&T, Siemens etc by paying them the sunk costs so far plus a reasonable profit. I am sure they will be glad to get rid of this stupid project instead of getting a bad name for absolutely no fault of theirs.
Then KSIIDC can run the airport, as a pure “public sector” company, as you wish – no UDF, HAL airport as it is etc. In two years it will become sick and unusable, and you can be happy, that it is serving the “public”.
Let us be practical. I mean, relax…roadu barathe, raginu sigathe. As for infrastructure woes, these things take time. It takes a little longer in our country. A differential user development fee may help collect money quicker and build a good road faster. If it is obviously the IT-BT types flying more, (a quick estimate two months after operationalising the airport will reveal the facts), industry may be asked to do its bit to speeden up and improve things. Passengers travelling business class, frequent fliers, H-1B and so on, should pay for “quick” connectivity. A deadline may be announced and adhered to by the BIAL, for the support infrastructure. Failure to deliver, should mean part of the fee collected is refunded to each of these travellers who have coughed up a differential fee.
There were and there are one too many writing about the new Airport and its connectivity, the sanctity of 150kms radius, et al. This one’s no diffy. From Ramesh Ramanathan to uncles and aunties in Ramamurthy Nagar and Reddys of Real Estate, every soul is talking about no roads and all roads leading to BIAL!
Not just raagi mudde, kundha, jolada rotti or curd rice, a lot more has been given a miss at BIAL. The local architecture, colours, designs, music, everything should go in to make a place. But all these, are in no way less important. Cochin airport is refreshing vis-a-vis any other airport in India. The reason is there for everyone to see.
Ramya, I invite you to go thourgh http://www.bangalore.praja.in and http://www.mysore.praja.in. You might find few workable, few sensible and few out-of-the-world solutions.
Arun Padaki
Hey… guys…b +ve. I don’t want’s to comment too much on this discussion but I would like to remind you with a common saying ‘Rome Wasn’t built in a day’.
C v r improving. Navu “vividyathe yalli ekathe (e Katte) bayasoru”, there are too many hurdles rather than just placing a simple phrase. But sure the situations will go to improve; first we should try to find out the solutions rather than pointing out the problems. Put all your suggestion, feedbacks, and raising tips together and publish it whenever or wherever v gets a chance… Just publish it.
Make forum, discuss, involve, improve. Every one have a right to question, but problem is we don’t have time….. this is a very very bad excuse every one says!! But sure India is rising, for that first we should change our attitude.
Interesting discussion. May be I shall travel more on Garibh rath of Lalu and forget about the new airport and air journey. With taxi charges of over Rs 400 one way, travel time – god knows how much, airport charges astronmical the Deccan airways, Bangalore – Delhi charges less than all these good bye to my air travel.
The whole project starting from location has been one of politics ignoring the needs of aveerage middle class but of only IT, BIo, Politicians and Senior bureaucrats on Government expenses.
I am for Tamilnadu Govt entering in to a joint venture for opening an airport at Hosur. It has the infra with a few aero industries also. If opened may be people towards Mysore side have better chances of reaching that airport earlier
Mr. Shenoy,
U might very well shift to Hosur. Welcome to Karunanidhi / Jayalalitha International Airport Limited ( based on which party is in power) .JIAL eerily sounds like JAIL ( with all those corruption cases )
What Mr.Shenoi is saying is common sense which the politicians of Karnataka overlooked purely because of the prevailing animosity between the Gowda families. Even if DG and Co had lots of land around Ramanagara and Bidadi, that would have been the ideal location for the Intl Airport. But the Congress Govt those days wanted to move it away to Devanahalli. Just imagine, this Airport would have been less than an hour from Blr and little over an hour from Mys…and saved some Rs.200 crores being spent on Mys Airport. With rail and road existing, this would have spared many from writing or commenting about the connectivity. Anyway… But DG had the last laugh as he was in power when BIAL took off. Now, it is for us, the people of Karnataka to see how Anantapur will prosper over the years. Those having an idea of the movement of real estate prices in Anantapur will concur.
In days to come, multiple airports may just be the answer to increased air travel, growing population, traffic congestion –both on roads and in the air. Judging by the way things are developing, Indian Airlines may retain rights over “plum” locations of airports, while private airlines may have to use those located in less accessible/developed areas. Hey, that’s a thought. Why don’t they tie-up with travel operators or taxis and offer “destination to destination packages” pick-up, drop, flight etc. I am sure they will also ensure that all infrastructure is put in place speedily. As they are forever competing with each other, the “passenger” may even get a good deal. As for business travellers, it is better companies quickly start guest houses in the vicinity of the international airport and complete business there. Visiting clients/partners need not travel all the way to the city and risk arriving late for crucial meetings. The Company officials can camp at the guest house on the previous night! Seeee, if you look for problems, you will find only problems. Look for solutions and you will have no problem! As for others who have to report for duty, I am sure the corporate czars will expect you to complete all reports on the flight, brief them enroute to the office on conf call, eat an apple on the way and step into office to collect the flight ticket for next day’s business travel.
Others on holiday or personal travel, just apply for extra leave –factoring in the to and fro travel. Two days should be fine, unless you have a delayed/cancelled flight to contend with.
BIAL is a private enterprise and not here for just ‘good karma’. – FINE i can accept that. Let them make a good profit, but if their idea of investing money is to get monopoly air-travel rights over a whole city and her population then this must be resisted.
I SAY let the HAL airport be kept open and let there be competition. I am sure no capitalist will say no to some healthy competition.
Prasad and others here keep asking why shouldn’t usage of airport cost the passenger, and why it should be free.
They miss the point. Current HAL airport too is not ‘free’. We are charged Rs.200 for it. The objection really is about an arbitrary, monopolistic rate of Rs.650 for domestic flights. At that rate, with about 10million users every year, BIAL will collect 700crore rupees from passengers alone. This excludes the income it makes from airliners for hiring out parking bays and other income from airport operations.
Considering the entire airport project was estimated to cost around 3500crores, they will recover this entire cost within 5 years, and this PPP is supposed to be for 30 years!
People are being asked to pay 3 times more for an airport, that is 45km away and will cost another 3times to just reach there from most populated parts of city. Doesn’t add up.
Think it logically…..brunner has gifted a best ever airport to Indian Aviation, we have to appreciate his work for completeing in such a short time. People of Karnataka have to work towards retaining it and improving it, rather fighting against it for silly reasons like name of the airport and jobs to Kannadigas.