HAL airport: verdict reserved

Bangalore: The Karnataka High Court on Saturday reserved its judgment on the public interest litigation (PIL) petitions seeking reopening of HAL airport for civil and commercial operations.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice Ashok B. Hinchigeri, which heard the petitions, gave an option to the petitioners to file a memo on Monday, if they were in consensus that the Union Government should consider reopening the HAL airport.

http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/27/stories/2011032760850800.htm

You are right we need to take this matter up with the GOI & AAI (GOK wont help) , apart from it we need support from ABide & RK Mishra.

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Ask for an hourly punctual train service to BIA & take the train. A 4km branch from the dodjala track will cost next to nothing & take you inside the terminal. 

Also on BOT mode apart from initial capex outlay there are recurring opex on maintenance. It is not a perpetual concession granted to the private party and there is a period when it will end & transfer back to the govt. or to another party for maintenance. We could definitely do an RTI to find out how much the govt is getting back from these tolls & the expenses being incurred on the maintenance on these roads. Throwing the baby out with the bath water is not the answer.

While I would definitely argue toll can be collected post provisioning of the service, I dont understand the outrage against tolling in general. If 80,000 crores for transport infrstructure has to be put up for Bangalore, mobilization of such revenues by direct means for each road is better than blanket tax on incomes, fuel etc. 

Regarding HAL airport like we discussed here and everywhere, if some people want the option to travel from HAL airport, some others want to have the option NOT to have to travel from the pigsty.

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In such case why not it should be paid in Bangalore, Hyderabad Airports.  It should be cancelled in these airports also.

I agree, what are the reasons it was cancelled there & not here? Will be good to read up the details. 

Here is some details, current levy fixed by govt is cancelled but not if it gets fixed by AERA.

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Hi IDS (I do not know ur name)

It is nice to see your reply, but I disagree with your view, the cost of maintenance is being charged as toll for longer period.  In my opinion, if you lay proper quality road, atleast it will lasts for 4 to 5 years, so there won't be any maintenance required.  Even if maintenance required very frequent also, it won't cost in crores, which the companies are getting as revenue.

Regarding the HAL airport, it is much comfortable to all the Bangaloreans compare to New BIAL.  It is like to go to Chennai, first go to Mysore then go to Chennai via Bangalore. Means I am talking about the time consumption on travelling to new Airport.  I am not a frequent air passenger.  But when I have gone to BIAL to catch my flight at 10AM, I have to leave my home at 7AM,.  If it is HAL airport, I could leave one hour early is more than enough. 

Now the it is being told that, to make passenger comfort, they are made signal free road, so we have to pay the toll for using the road.  In short time, I can tell you there will be a big traffic jam near the toll booth to pay the toll and pass the road, by then the flight would have been departed.

Forget about the air travellers, the people who are from Devanahalli village, who travells daily to Bangalore city for the work, need to shell out money daily to pay the toll both ways.  Because of our governments' decision of changing the new airport, these poor people should get suffer.

Because no one is questioning the governments, that is why so much corruption are happening (Ex.2G, Aadharsh Housing, Commonwealth Games, and much more will come out soon)

Hope being a citizen of Bangalore, you will understand the difficulties of a common man.

Regards,

Umesh.S

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I agree that BIAL airport was very much necessary, as HAL airport had lot of security concerns as well lack of space both in terms of planes and people. Also, it used to be huge jam on the airport road, so it was a wise decision to shift airport far from CBD. Many have protested against it, but I always felt its ok to have the airport a little far, and was happy that atleast government is providing a good 6-lane highway till airport, and also good public-transport volvo buses to reach airport faster and good frequency. Now, when all that is done and public have become habitual of using so-far airport, now you start taking toll for all that, this doesn't make much sense to me. I mean, first of all you (govt) want to make that road highway so that minimal time is needed to reach airport and then you make queues outside toll-booth. Have they thought of any worst case scenarios, where someone is little late and have to catch flight, and get delayed due to toll-booth just outside airport. I mean, if you  notice properly, if you reach airport and you see a long queue, but if your flight is about to depart soon, you can request airport authorities, may be your name getting announced to come in front and do check-in fast etc, and board the flight. How these situations wil be handled at toll-booth. I mean, we generally take 2 hours time to reach airport from any part in Bangalore generally, which includes traffic jam at all points, but how time required at toll-booth will be calculated in fit in our planning? These secnarious will be everyday's scenes.

I am in general not against any kind of toll, I think if you provide good service, yes we are ready to pay, but not in this way. I mean, first you promise good roads, good public transport in affordable price, lesser-traffic jams when you want to convince citizens about the new airport, and when they get habbitual of the same, you reduce the bus frequency, increase the fair, put up toll booths etc etc. This is not fair.

Deepak

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Hi Deepak,

I agree to your point on BIAL.  Even I am not against BIAL.  What I am trying to say is atleast some short distance flights (like flights to Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Trivandram, Mysore, Mangalore etc, can be operated from HAL airport or the ATR flights can be operated from HAL. 

I just want to share the experiences I had in HAL & BIAL airports.

In HAL airport (though it is small in area and limited counters for checkin & security checks, I was able clear these formalities within 15 to 20 minutes. Whereas I have spent nearly 30 to 40 minutes in BIAL.  The flights are same time flights (morning around 10AM Bangalore to Pune).  Another thing which I want to share here is the safety of passengers in airport.  The floor tiles in BIAL is too much slippary than HAL.  After security check in BIAL, we have to go two level down again to board the bus which takes us to the flight.  Beause direct access to the flight from entry gate is given only to the international flights.

Even I am not against the BIAL, but at the same time, the money spent on upgradation of HAL is going waste because non usage.

The governments should not be the slaves of private players.  The then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi made all service sectors public to avoid misuse by private players. (Banks, Financial Institutions, Insurance, Airports etc), but now the same politicians are selling India to private players for their own benefit. 

We are talking about Anna Hazare and praising hime, supporting him by holding the placards.  Why can't we raise the same question to the politcians like Hazare, because we fear on them.  Just spend few minutes with others by holding placards against government, go home, watch TV, and then next day go to work as usual by paying toll on the roads.  Is this the way we should protest against these corrupt politicians.

I happened to read on joke in one of the dailies, saying Manmohan singh doesn't have practice of contesting election and win and doesn't vote also.  Being the Prime Minister he himself not voting means, then how anyone can expect the citizen to vote.  (Remember the sanskrit slogan Yadha Raja, Tatha Praja).

Let us see how many more people really does contribute to the change.

Regards,

Umesh.S

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then why the toll?

Apart from it everyone knows the BAIL is already full. We can use the HAL facility for near locations, if the private party wants to make profits they can keep the deal with HAL.

About bus transport , its too costly and takes more time than the cabs. We need a lot of changes in BAIL bus services which you can see in my other blogs.

Regards,

Naveen

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IN my opinion if the govt wants to collect Toll it should not be to get into the airport. This is forcing citizens to pay toll to use the airport which just makes no sense. UDF and ADF is already in place for the airport why add Toll. Most of the places airport lanes have no toll which means they are exclusively to and out of airport. NHAI can levy its toll for other traffic if it wishes to do so OR there should be a non toll road that can cater to all others who wish to use that even if it is a longer route. This should not have anything to do with opening of HAL or closing of it. We have had so much of conversation here on the site about BIAL and HAL.

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@sumi71

>>In my opinion BOT concept to be banned, because it helps the private >>players to make huge profits with less investments.

A blanket ban of BOT model would be a classic case of "throwing the baby out along with the bath water". The concept of government being the sole provider of infrastructure is needless to say a proven failure in our Country. A BOT model implemented with the right checks and balances could definitely benefit. If it is implemented badly AND then mixing it with corrupt politics then it would definitely be a disaster. I guess that is the reason why they have the concept of floating tenders; then getting into a contract etc. ...to ensure there is fair competition and the public knows what they are getting into.  Having said that, the idea of providing a non toll option in addition to a toll option to get to BIA is definitely a good idea.

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