Daijiworld Media Network – Kalaburagi (DC)

Kalaburagi, Aug 27: The much-awaited Kalaburagi airport will become functional soon following successful landing of a test flight on Sunday August 26.

The airport which has a runway of 3,620 metres, and which is situated at about 15 kilometres m from the city centre, will operate commercial flights soon.

"The Karnataka government would pressurise the Centre to include Kalaburagi airport under the UDAN scheme so that the fares are under check and regional connectivity gets a boost, said minister for Social Welfare, Priyank Kharge, who witnessed the test landing.

The airport will be helpful to those heading to Kalaburagi, the biggest city in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. At present, those travelling to Kalaburagi must invariably depend on buses or trains and both the modes take not less than 10-12 hours. It also takes five to six hours to those who prefer to travel by air have to catch a flight from Bengaluru to Hyderabad and then take a road trip from there.

The project was delayed several times. The project was to begin from 2008 under public private partnership. The contract was given to Maytas. But the project was later given to another infrastructure company after Satyam controversy broke out. Since that company too could not sort out legal issues with the partner, the physical work was taken up by the public works department.