The Hindu

• It’s a poor cousin to most other similar projects: Katta Subramanya Naidu
• No seats provided for those waiting to receive passengers
• Quality of construction is poor, says Minister

Bangalore, Aug 7: Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology Katta Subramanya Naidu, who is in-charge of Bangalore North, has expressed his displeasure over the amenities available at the Bengaluru International Airport and has decided to take up the matter with the Union Government.

He told presspersons here on Wednesday that the international airport was not really “international” in comparison with the facilities available in the other international airports, including that of Hyderabad and New Delhi.

“This international airport is a poor cousin to most others and does not have any world standard facility. It will bring down the image of Karnataka in the eyes of the people who arrive here from across the world.”

The airport civil structure was marked by shoddy construction and the State Government would focus on all these issues.

The Minister said the airport had no seating arrangements for people waiting to receive the passengers and there was no seating arrangement even for the police and other staff.

Employees on duty at the airport had to remain standing for hours on end. Even toilets for the common people were very few.

“Much was expected from the new international airport and it is a let down for the people of the State. Successive governments had done their best to ensure that Bangalore had one of the finest international airports and what we now see is no where near expectations.

The Karnataka Government will take up this matter seriously with the authorities concerned.”

The Minister said most other major metropolitan cities had more than one airport and in the context of the poor facilities at the Bengaluru International Airport and the distance between the airport and the city, it was time the HAL airport was reopened for passenger aircraft.

“We will take up this issue with the Centre. The Karnataka Government is a partner in the international airport and consequently has a right to demand adequate facilities for passengers and others,” he said.

He said the Joint Legislature Committee would probe into all aspects of the international airport.

The legislature committee had been constituted at the instance of a vociferous demand made by the former Minister D.K. Shivakumar on the floor of the Legislative Assembly during the recent budget session.

The Government readily agreed to the Opposition demand for constituting a legislature committee and select members of the Legislative Council would be part of the committee. With reference to the information technology and biotechnology sectors, Mr. Subramanya Naidu said there was a big demand for establishing a major IT, BT and nano technology park in Bangalore.

The proposal is to establish such a park on 2,000 acres of land and the Government is thinking of establishing the park on a public-private partnership basis.

He said the Government was thinking of establishing IT and BT parks in Belgaum and Hubli.

These parks would provide employment to nearly 1,000 people apart from others. Efforts were on to set up IT park in a big way in the tier-two cities of the State, he added.