Vijayapura Airport to be operational by year-end
Vijayapura: The prolonged delay in making the Vijayapura Greenfield Airport operational has drawn criticism from both the business community and local residents. Nearly 98 per cent of the airport construction has been completed, with only minor works remaining.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the airport must have a firefighting facility and obtain environmental clearance. Once these requirements are met, the airport will be inaugurated. Industries minister MB Patil said an order has been placed for two Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) vehicles with the Rosenbauer Company in Austria and the vehicles will arrive soon. "Efforts are on to secure environmental clearance and once it is granted, the airport will be inaugurated," he said.
The demand for an airport at Vijayapura — a historical place having great tourism potential — has been a longstanding one, spanning over 50 years. It was Kalingappa B Choudhary who was Bijapur MP in 1977 and 1980 who first put forth the demand for an airport at the then Bijapur in Parliament. However, the response to the demand came just 16 years ago with MP Ramesh Jigajinagi pressing for it again.
Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murty, who has adopted Vijayapura district, had raised a question in the House during the session and sought to know when the airport will be inaugurated.
She also sought the answer in writing. The answer to her question was "very soon."
Sudha Murty has attachment to Vijayapura district and she has been organising various benevolent programmes in the district for the past 25 years though the Infosys Foundation.
"Karnataka govt has developed the infrastructure at the airport and once it becomes operational, other works to upgrade it into an international airport will follow," Patil said.
Vijayapura airport has come up on the 727 acres at Buranapur-Madabhavi villages off Vijayapura city by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
When Govind Karjol was the public works minister, he evinced interest in speedying the works and now the airport is ready.
Infrastructure
The new airport features a passenger terminal building, aircraft apron, singular 1.9km runway and car parking facilities. Basically, it was designed to operate small ATR-72-600 type aircraft at a cost of Rs 95 crore and will be able to handle about 200 passengers during peak hours.
The state govt has upgraded the airport to facilitate flying of Airbus-320 by releasing additional Rs 127.9 crore.
The civil works have been taken up by the public works department and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has funded the civil works. KSIIDC is the nodal agency for supervising the works. M/s RITES of Gurgaon designed the airport.
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