The Hindu : New Delhi News : SC to hear plea against HAL Airport closure on May 5

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SC to hear plea against HAL Airport closure on May 5

J. Venkatesan

HAL Airport is handling traffic of 9.9 million passengers
Parliamentary panel against closure of HAL Airport

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on May 5 a petition for an interim direction to the Union Government not to close the HAL Airport in Bangalore for commercial civil aviation operations.

A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran fixed the date of hearing of a special leave petition filed by Bangalore City Connect Foundation, against an interim order of the Karnataka High Court rejecting its plea for interim relief.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Harish Salve submitted that the issue was of great importance as the parliamentary committee had come down heavily on the government for its move to close the HAL Airport.

He said the airport was handling traffic of 9.9 million passengers and its closure would cause hardship to air travellers. The Bench agreed to examine the issue and posted the petition for hearing on May 5.

The petitioner challenged the proposed closure of HAL airport once the Bangalore International Airport at Devenahalli was opened and became operational on May 11. It said the new airport was being established at Devanahalli, 40 km away from the city. While its distance for international passengers might not present a major problem, it would cause inconvenience to domestic passengers.

It said the dramatic growth in traffic projections had resulted in Devanahalli airport being under capacity even before it was commissioned. The passenger throughput at that airport would admittedly be far in excess of what was conceived at the time when concession agreements were signed.

It said the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its 131st report had unanimously recommended that the existing airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad should not be closed for commercial operations. The committee had advised the government to re-negotiate this issue and if necessary to scrap the clause which obliged the government to close the airports. The petitioner sought quashing of the impugned order dated April 16 and an interim direction that the HAL airport should continue to be operational.

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