Police brace up for security at Devanahalli airport
As the countdown begins for the launch of Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli on March 29, the police plan to establish three new police stations and create a North-East Police Division headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police to provide security to the airport and surrounding areas.

Bangalore Police Commissioner Neelam Achutha Rao told The Hindu that to ensure better security and traffic management, Devanahalli and some of its surrounding areas that were now part of the Bangalore Rural district, would soon be brought under the jurisdiction of the city police.
Formal proposal soon

The police will make a formal proposal to the State Government about the new police division and establishing two police stations — one each for law and order and traffic— at the Devanahalli airport as well as a traffic police station at Chikkajala, Mr. Achutha Rao said.

The existing law and order police stations at Devanahalli and Chikkajala, now under Bangalore Rural district, would become part of the city police unit and would be upgraded.

Division of labour
As the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) took care of the internal security of the airport, the police would provide peripheral security, he said.

Explaining the need for heightened security around the airport, Mr. Rao said commercial activity would take place in the area once the airport became operational.

Besides, there would be frequent and heavy movement of VVIPs. Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) had agreed to provide space on the airport premises to house the two police stations and an office of the Assistant Commissioner of Police, he said.

The Emigration Desk at the airport would be handled by the local police until the Intelligence Bureau eventually took over.

The BIAL had agreed to allot space to accommodate 18 tables each at the arrival and departure terminals.

“We had sought space for 20 tables and they were initially willing to provide space for only 15,” the Police Commissioner said.

Land for quarters
The BIAL had been asked to provide land to build residential quarters for the emigration staff as it would be difficult for them to commute from Bangalore everyday.

“As the BIAL has said the Police Department should buy land from it at the market price, the Government is negotiating with the company,” Mr. Achutha Rao said.

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...Land for quarters The BIAL had been asked to provide land to build residential quarters for the emigration staff as it would be difficult for them to commute from Bangalore everyday... They are already talking of building quarters for officals..what if the officials want to get to mysore on a weekend? or to a hospital? Should they shell out 200Rs for a ride to the city? The above is one of the many cases which will be against the exorbitant ticket prices! If the cost of laying the lines deciding the train travel cost..which it is..they should seriously urgently look at realligning the rail with the idea of reducing the costs and inturn reduce the ticket cost! Exclusive trains could be a model for less populated cities..Bangalore should be seen in a different light!

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Updates on trials' schedules and BIAL's decision to impose a user devlopment fee.
Source: The Hindu (BIAL landing trials likely in February , Bangalore airport may stick to user development fee)



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'Physically', the runway is ready
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The first trials of landing and take-off of aircraft at BIAL likely to commence in February after the installation of radar and air traffic control.
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Trials of individual equipment to precede before synchronising all operations.
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Trial runs of other facilities will begin from January 15.
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BIAL has sent a proposal to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry seeking to levy user development fee of Rs. 675 on domestic travellers and Rs. 955 on international travellers.
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Karnataka Government, has expressed its reservation over levying hefty charges on outbound travellers.
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BIAL had agreed for uniform landing and parking charges for aircraft as in the rest of the airports in the country.
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BIAL cites increased costs investments from Rs. 1,400 crore to Rs. 2,400 crore due to additional expenditure on construction of canopy, airline offices, landscaping and trumpet interchange as the reason, despite increase in passenger traffic from projected estimates.
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BIAL expected to see 10 million passengers in the first year.“Three forecasts that have been made so far have gone completely wrong.”  (BIAL CEO, Brunner)
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'It is the core of our revenue stream', says airport CEO, Brunner.
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Hyderabad's HIAL has not proposed a user fee.

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Mock Trials At BIAL
Source: Times of India epaper Jan 18, 2008 (FOR TAKE-OFF Check in at the new airport!)

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The upcoming Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli is bustling with activity. Passengers hurriedly going through the check-in, completing other formalities and finally passing through the boarding gate. Only what is missing is an aeroplane!

Dedicated mock trials for handling passenger traffic have begun at the airport. To ensure a smooth opening of the much-awaited greenfield airport, the BIAL has set up a start-up team that has put together a pool of mock passengers — volunteers — to test the different functions and standard operating procedures at the airport.

The start-up team had approached many event management companies to get volunteers, who according to BIAL, “are an ideal mix that typifies actual passengers as best as possible.”

The trials, held twice a week, are conducted during peak-hour traffic. Volunteers have been a given a script to follow for the departure process: checkin at 10 am with or without baggage, use the various boarding facilities, security check and finally pass through the boarding gate before departure time. A similar script is followed for the arrival processes.

“These trials will test the capacity of different sub-processes and eventually show critical areas and possible obstacles. Based on the feedback of their (mock passengers) experience, BIAL will improve and finetune the processes,” said an official spokesperson of BIAL. The airport is expected to handle 10.5 million passengers a year.

“If the trial performance does not reach the required quality standards, it will have to be repeated on another day of the week,” added the spokesperson.

However, it is still not sure whether these mock passengers would be boarded on a plane and taken for a ride. Airport officials are still discussing the idea. BIAL has approached various airlines requesting them to land some of their aircraft at the airport, which would help test the landing and takeoff facilities, and also assist in these mock passenger trials.

    A CAT I instrument landing system has been put in place, which allows pilots to go in for a touchdown at 200 ft above the elevated portion of the runway with a visibility range of not less than 1,800 feet. This landing system is geared to allow safe landing of flights during fog as well.

    “Airline ground staff and concessionaires will also be part of these trials to make sure that their staff members and systems have been checked out and can guarantee smooth operations from the first day,” said the spokesperson.

Cauvery Water For Airport
Source: Deccan Herald(Cauvery water for airport soon)

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Preparation for Cauvery water supply to the airport has already been completed & BWSSB is geared up to supply 1 MLD (million litres per day) of Cauvery water to BIAL. BWSSB did a trial supply on December 23, and the result was satisfactory.

BIAL has to rely on Cauvery water supplied from BWSSB as the Mines and Geology Department had restricted sinking of fresh borewells in airport area. 
 
BWSSB has set up the pipelines at a cost of Rs 23 lakh. The water charges for airport would be 10% higher than that collected from industries in Bangalore City limits.  However a final agreement on prices is yet to be signed. 

BWSSB is also demanding that the airport bear the cost of the pump set up exclusively to supply water to BIAL.   Its rationale: The water has to be pumped at five places before it could reach Devanahalli. Cauvery water is now brought to Bangalore City through pumps at TK Halli, Harohalli and Tataguni. To take water from the city to Devanahalli, two more pumping stations were set up at Jagganahalli and GKVK (UAS).

BWSSB and BIAL are expected to sign an agreement on the water supply within two weeks.

T J S George: Should an airport become anti-passenger?
Source: newindpress

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WHAT the salaried class is to income tax hunters, passengers are to aviation mandarins: Helpless, captive milch-cows. The way Air-India overcharges and ill-treats Gulf travellers is a case in point. It has had a monopoly in this sector for long and it has shamelessly used that exclusivity to exploit passengers.

Now the Bangalore International Airport is becoming a landmark example of how airport companies can squeeze the Mickey out of air passengers. It wants to impose a user fee. And no chhotta-motta thing either. It has specified an avaricious Rs 675 for every domestic passenger and an avaricious Rs 955 for every international passenger. The CEO of the company says this inflated user fee “is the core of our revenue stream without which the operations would not be viable”.

There is something fundamentally wrong when a company sees monopoly-based exploitation as the basis of its core revenue. What the Bangalore company's CEO has projected is a bankrupt business model. On his logic the new Hyderabad airport's CEO must be a dimwit for Hyderabad is levying no user fee. Mumbai and Delhi airports, recently privatised, have no user fee either. How come their operations are viable? Will they open their floodgates if the Bangalore company sets the wrong example?

Kozhikode airport made itself notorious once by charging a user fee. Passengers raised a hue and cry. The Malabar Chamber of Commerce took the lead in coordinating the protests. The boycott that followed seriously dented the load factor in departing flights and forced authorities to drop the user fee system completely.

Cochin Airport company, the first “private” operator in the country, imposed a user fee in early 2001. Protests were strong and the authorities there also abandoned the idea five years later. They gave the excuse that user fee was no longer needed because the company was profitable.

That company continues to be nicely profitable. Which shows that an efficiently run airport does not need usurious levies to build up a healthy revenue stream. It is lazy managements that resort to such anti-passenger shortcuts. Let's not forget Kozhikode and Cochin imposed user fees only on departing international passengers. It's the Bangalore CEO who has the brainwave to fleece domestic passengers as well.

That's unconscionable when the new Bangalore airport's aggravation count is already heavy. Frequent fliers from heartlands like Electronic City will need three hours to reach the airport. And they must reach one hour ahead of the flight. So we are talking of a four-hour ordeal for a 45-minute flight to Chennai.

It's about time that oversmart CEOs and companies looking for easy money are told that this is a country where people's interests count. Governments both in Delhi and Bangalore as well as business organisations must insist that (a) no extortionist user fee will be allowed, and (b) Bangalore's geography demands that the option to allow short-haul flights from the present HAL airport is retained.

The failure to provide speedy and comfortable access to the airport is something for which passengers must be compensated, not penalised. If passengers are used for artificial profit-making, then the airport company should pay the passenger a user fee. How about Rs 998?

PM to Inaugurate BIAL
Source: Deccan Herald (PM to open B'lore airport)

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has agreed to inaugurate the new Bangalore international airport coming up at Devanahalli either on March 28 or before, reports DHNS from New Delhi.

“I have requested him to inaugurate the airport at a date of his convenience on or before March 28”, Governor Rameshwar Thakur said.

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BIAL Has a new logo sporting on its website - When did they change it?? Looks like the website is changing its look and feel too... Interesting part is why are they doing it now... positive part is atleast they are changing some thing to make it better :)

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thanks santsub. awesome!! actually this is change of website was due. so far the airport was in construction phase so the stress on the site was on construction progress. now since the airport is now on the verge of being operational. expect to see flight details, info for passengers, etc etc to be added to the website. i was wondering when it is that they would shift. they have started moving 2 months ahead. and while at it they even changed the logo. rock on!! wonder if it is the same peppersquare-walas who are incharge of the design. ps: i hope they have not removed the small kinDi that allowed access to nice nice pics and details.

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New airport gets cell to face emergencies http://deccanherald.com/Content/Jan282008/city2008012849058.asp Promoters of the airport, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), are leaving no stone unturned by setting up an effective disaster management system to counter such eventualities. BIAL, which has selected Columbia Asia as the partner in providing medical care at the airport apart from establishing a round-the-clock medical care unit at the airport, will also provide total medical assistance in case of any disaster. “The medical care facility will have the latest in medical equipment, technology and expertise to handle routine outdoor medical care and stabilise emergencies. In addition, Columbia Asia, with its partners, will provide total medical assistance in coordinating any mass casualty event or a disaster,” BIAL officials said. On the evacuation front, one ambulance will be stationed on the land-side and three ambulances on the air-side and one stand-by in case of any emergency. Though there will not be any heli-ambulance services provided by promoters, BIAL officials say based on requirement, it will accommodate heli-ambulances at the airport subject to service operator obtaining all statutory clearances. Officials further said the service providers on the medical care and disaster management front have been chosen after a comprehensive tender process and after checking their past track record of providing effective medical care facilities and handling disaster response services.

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By the time the sun rises on March 30, 2008, 4000 passengers, arriving in 25 national and international flights, would have landed at BIAL.
Wonder which plane gets to land first and how the first passenger will be. Any enthusiasts planning to be there to record the landing of the first flight?

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8 landings before first flight
Deccan Herald

Marking a decisive shift in its status, the Bengaluru International Airport will become "operational" with the first flight set to take off exactly at midnight on March 30.

But even before this “international” first flight, a domestic airliner will record the airport’s maiden landing anytime after 8 pm on March 29.

Seven more landings will follow this first touchdown, before midnight. For the HAL Airport, the shift will be abrupt. The curtains will fall right after 8 pm on March 29, the deadline set for all landings to cease there. “All flights after 20.00 hours will land at Devanahalli. The new airport will have to handle seven to eight domestic landings and 16 international flight landings before the morning of March 30,” an official at HAL Airport said.

With 25 landings and take-offs scheduled between 8 pm on March 29 and early morning on March 30, Bengaluru International Airport will feel the pressure from day one. Not less than 4,000 passengers are expected to experience the new airport in the first few hours of its operation.  

Almost seven weeks ahead of its formal launch, BIAL has already advised air passengers to contact different airlines on their March 29 schedule. If their flight lands after 8 pm, they could be in for an entirely new experience, and a different road journey to their home or hotel, 40 kilometres away in Bangalore.

Despite demands to retain the HAL Airport at least for domestic flights, the new airport’s operationalisation would mean an end to the old aerodrome. “It will be an absolute shutdown for HAL airport, and an absolute opening for the Bengaluru International Airport,” said a BIAL spokesperson.

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