Work on Gulbarga airport starts from April 1

Source: The Hindu

At long last: The airport will be constructed on 693 acres of land at Srinivas Saradgi village on the outskirts of Gulbarga. — FILE PHOTO

The construction of the much-delayed greenfield airport on the outskirts of Gulbarga is scheduled to take off on April 1.

The airport will be constructed on 693 acres of land at Srinivas Saradgi village.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Sunday that a high-level team from Gulbarga Airport Developers Ltd. (GADL), a conglomeration of financial companies and infrastructure developers who have been awarded the contract for construction, would arrive here soon to begin work on the runway and other infrastructure.

Within two years

In May 2010, the State Government inked a memorandum of understanding with GADL in this regard, with a condition to complete work within two years. A spokesperson of the GADL said the group was confident that they would complete the construction of all facilities within the stipulated period and introduce air services to the people here.

GADL has also assured the State that the runway will be complete by May 21.

According to sources in the State Government, once the runway is complete, a team from the Airports Authority of India would visit the site and give its final nod for the installation of infrastructure that would enable the landing and taking off of aircrafts.

GADL is also expected to start negotiations with air service operators when construction work takes off.

As per latest details available, the airport is likely to be made operational as soon as June 21 this year.

Remaining land

The initial proposal suggested that the airport would come up on 400 acres. GADL is yet to decide on how to use the remaining 293 acres available. The group plans to take up a feasibility study of the remaining land. There was also a proposal to increase the area for the airport by adding more facilities, sources said.

The Gulbarga airport would initially have a medium-sized runway of 1,550 m, which is sufficient to operate ATR 72 aircrafts. In the second phase, the runway length would be extended to 3,100 m, to enable larger aircrafts such as those from Airbus and 737s to land. The second phase will be taken up based on demand and the traffic situation after five years.

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Airport likely to be made operational by June 21

GADL yet to decide how to use remaining land