The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : HC refuses to stay HAL Airport closure

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Saturday, May 24, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

HC refuses to stay HAL Airport closure

Staff Reporter

12 weeks sought to renegotiate with BIAL
Bench expresses dismay over lack of connectivity

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Friday refused to stay a May 16 notification of the Centre closing down HAL Airport for civil commercial operations from midnight of May 23.

But the court slammed the Union and State governments for failing to provide hassle-free connectivity between Bangalore and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) at Devanahalli.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Rammohan Reddy and Justice Jawed Rahim passed the order on interlocutory applications (IA) by B. Krishna Bhat and other petitioners against the closure of the HAL airport.

Renegotiation option

The Bench, however, took note of the submission by Additional Solicitor-General Aravind Kumar that the Centre, State and Airports Authority of India (AAI) would within 12 weeks explore the possibility of brining about a consensual agreement with BIAL to keep the HAL airport for commercial operations.

The court said if the negotiations were concluded in favour of opening HAL Airport, the Centre would take all steps to reopen the HAL Airport for commercial operations.

Rejecting the IAs, the Bench said it was not inclined to accept the complaints of the petitioners for staying the closure of HAL Airport. It said although it sympathised with the plight of the petitioners, it had limitations in interfering with policy decisions and matters such as locations of airports, railway stations and bus stands. On complaints by petitioners that the two rounds of renegotiations held on April 29 and May 11 were a farce, the Bench said: “It cannot be said that the renegotiations were a farce. In our opinion, efforts have been made by the Centre to comply with the suggestions of an earlier Division Bench of the High Court.” However, there was every reason for the applicants to put forth their plea that the existing connectivity between Bangalore and the new airport was far from satisfactory.

Lack of connectivity

The Bench said it found hard to believe that the State had not even envisaged or drawn up a master plan on how connectivity should be provided when the agreement was signed with BIAL in 2004. It said both the State Government and the Centre were aware that connectivity to airport would affect public interest and lack of which would give room for public discord.

It was incumbent on the part of the governments to take measures to ease the public inconvenience relating to connectivity.

It recorded the submissions of Principal Secretary of Infrastructure V.P. Baligar and Commissioner of Bruhut Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Subramanya that several projects, including widening of roads, had been taken up to provide better connectivity between Bangalore and BIAL.

They said among the projects conceived were an expressway from Hebbal to the airport and a high-speed rail link.

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