I'm in favour of HAL Airport reopening, but this time, HAL should not derive economic benefits out of that. HAL used the airport as a "cash cow" and never concentrated on it's original goal, viz, development of civilian aircrafts.

HAL can be moved lock, stock and barrel out of Bengaluru to places like Tumkur / Nelamangala or Dobbspet. I will write to the district in charge minister, Shri P Venkatramanappa about this.

Why should HAL derive benefits out of milking the airport when HAL was not meant to do that in the first place??

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I am sure our CM would be more than glad to have HAL shifted lock stock and barrel to Shimoga, his constituency. This will free up all the land which can be used for a better airport in the City Centre unlike the ugly glass and concrete lump that is BIAL.

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There were few plusses with BIAL. The distance although is more and results in high fuel usage as well as the introduction of Aiprot Charges which has made it unattractive, the drop off area, shuttle area and the parking area is organized. The distance was like an indirect tolling and people are reluctant to use private cars and that has taken out the mess that HAL add.

If at all if HAL is started, private vehicles will recreate the mess. If tolling is introduced from entrance till airport, even then lot many  will take drop on the Airport road. Again, the messy city taxis and autos.

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Since Dobbuspet and Tumkur are within 140 km radius of BIAL, as per the agreement, there cannot be another airport. Mandya on the other hand just 140 kms from BIAL. On the other hand, Mysore airport which is under construction if constructed with all good facilities, the BMIC, Four Lane Bangalore Mysore Road, Volvos can all ensure the journey to be 2 hours to Mysore. People will be levied of the 600 Rs extra UDF. Fare will be the same they are spending on the existing airport travel. Tourism and hotel business as well as Mysore as a city can improve lot further. A Hyderabad travel fare can get reduced by 600.

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There is so much scope for developing HAL airport - lot of space constraints go, plus you get airport entry options from ORR side, and perhaps south side as well.

This is a tougher thing to expect or pull off though. On level below from this would be to work at two levels on current airport

Airport arrival/dearture area

• Multi level parking
• Two level grade split for arrival and departure
• Ban private vehicles. Only buses r parking shuttles allowed
• Grade separator (magic bix, whatever) from airport road

Airport traffic plan

• An entry point to airport from Inner Ring Road side. That will take care of traffic coming from South and West Bangalore
• Parking complex away from airport. One could be o Inner ring Road itself. Park their, checkin there, and sit in a shuttle or monorail (!) to airport
• Use the airport as a pretext to advance the monorail or BRTS plans in CTTP for Indiranagar/ Inner ring Road stretch. An extenstion could connect IRR with airport from this parking/checkin complex
• This extension can actually pass through airport to connect IRR with Outer Ring Road.
• Then, you can make a remote parking complex com airport checkin point on or near ORR as well. Park, checkin, take the monorail to airport.

The IRR connectivity option:Two possibilities

Can do this type of thing from ORR as well. Will try a picture later.

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SB,

 Continuing from your post, lets map all roads leading towards HAL airport from all sides of the city. This mapping with lane markings, ped Xings, bust stops at right places could be part of engagements with Praveen Sood, BMTC and BBMP.

 My suggestion would be 2 fold.

1. One to mark and map all the entry roads/points to airport within 5 Kms of Radius.
2. Second would be to mark and map all the feeder roads from different corners of the city. 

 As a first step, can some body mark all roads that lead to airport within 5 Km radius?

P.S> Being out of country for last few years, I think I am little out of touch with present traffic scenario in B'lore, beyond IndiraNagar, Koramangala etc.

 Syed.

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On the eve of BIAL getting operational, media had gone gaga over connectivity to BIAL. They went to extent that they took pains to take an actual trip to airport and reported the naunces of airport journey. Some reports were in line with todays actual trip to BIAL and some were way off-mark. But still it served purpose to warn the public about the precautions they need to take for the airport ride etc.

 With HAL-Reopening buzzword is spreading like  wildfire, I am hoping that media would do the justice again by reporting the pleasures of journey to the airport in city. This time to HAL airport. Also hoping that our "Open HAL" campaign friends would help bangalore with field trip reports on connectivity to HAL airport. I am sure the reports will be balanced and true to the actual facts on ground. Also it would be interesting to see how far governing powers would help the general public with hassle free tarvel to HAL airport.

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I dont understand this connectivity to BIA issue. The kind of distances we are talking about is nothing to be concerned about. A growing city is bound to have infrastructure spread out. We have to get away from thinking Bangalore exists around MG road. It was when we were a small town. Bangalore and its impact is spread from Bidadi to Kolar from Devanahalli to Attibele. San Francisco wants to be our sister city because we have an impact that reaches there. What we need is massive build outs in infrastructure. East-West, North-South. Spread the crowd around and they will let you cycle in CBD in peace. Please visit infrastructure in NCR and Bombay/Gujarat. The same companies dont hesitate travelling 60KMS from Greater Noida to IGI/Domestic airport in NCR because the infrastructure makes it worth it. We have to buy larger pants because we are growing and not a child anymore. We may restrict waistline going from 34 to 40 but we cant remain a size 10. We are mistaking growth to be bloat.

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When all the efforts are being made to de-congest the Central Business area, reopening of HAL is gonna reverse or undo all these efforts. I liked Vasanth's idea of having an airport in Mandya. This is gonna boost the Industrial development in that area and also in Mysore.

The need of the hour is clarity of thoughts from the politicians.Decongest the Central Biz area, encourage suburbs, improve connectivity to remote areas and improve the last-mile connectivity. In this light, i find the idea mooted to have a 45storey building at Majestic to be too foolish.

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So, now that HAL is likely to re-open, what would BBMP et al do to provide quick access to HAL airport? BTW, commuters on Airport Road will tell you that airport closure has not made any difference to their commute times.

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