Everyone loves a good development project, especially our legislators. With the proposal for a second international airport for Bengaluru creating a buzz, MLAs are lobbying for locations such as Sira in Tumakuru district and Mysuru. The Karnataka government has zeroed in on three tracts of land south of Bengaluru, within 50 km from the city centre and well-connected by roads. Two are off Kanakapura Road in Ramanagara district, and the third between Kunigal and Nelamangala. The new airport would cater mainly to south Bengaluru and the IT corridor, from where citizens now have to make a 60-km journey to the Kempegowda International Airport north of the city.
Just before an Airports Authority of India team was due to inspect the three shortlisted sites, a section of Congress MLAs attempted to turn the view away from Kanakapura, the stomping ground of Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, and towards Sira. Home Minister G Parameshwara was the first to raise the issue, which was backed by at least 42 Congress MLAs, most of them from this region.
They shot off a letter to CM Siddaramaiah and Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu in support of this small town 120 km from Bengaluru. It was pitched as being ideally located in an industrial belt and as a gateway to Central Karnataka. The Sira proposal did not make much headway as Infrastructure Minister M B Patil said it was fit for a regional airport, whose viability consultants would be hired to study. The tourist city of Mysuru may offer a better alternative, having good connectivity to Bengaluru.
The plan for a second airport has been in the pipeline for a few years now, despite the current one’s two terminals and expanding runways. The Bengaluru airport is the third busiest in international traffic, logging 41 million passengers and over 5 lakh tonnes of cargo last year. The city surely needs another airport, but it cannot be located at whim.
While every big-ticket project offers real estate opportunities, politicians ought to keep in mind practicality and public convenience while pushing for their constituencies. Especially for an international airport, which would need excellent metro and road connectivity. There are other factors at play, too: airlines’ convenience, meteorological details, geographical terrain and operational feasibility. Politics has no role in such a project.