Mangalore: New Arrival Hall at Bajpe Airport Opened to Passengers

Raviprasad Kamila for The Hindu

The hall, covering an area of 14,000 sq ft, can handle 250 passengers at a time

MANGALORE, Jun 18: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) opened the new arrival hall at Bajpe (Mangalore) airport to passengers on Sunday.
The air-conditioned hall, covering an area of 14,000 sq ft, can handle 250 passengers at a time. It has been built in eight months at an estimated cost of Rs. 3.5 crore.
For some time, it will be used to handle passengers of domestic flights only, M.R. Vasudeva, director of the airport, told The Hindu.
The airport handles nine domestic flights a day including five to Mumbai and four to Bangalore.
The new arrival hall would handle approximately 800 to 900 domestic passengers a day, he said.
The arrival hall has two conveyor belts, toilets, drinking water facility, a pre-paid taxi counter, a flight information board and a hotel counter. It has a visitors’ gallery. Visitors have to pay a fee to enter the gallery. They would be allowed to the gallery after a security check, Mr. Vasudeva said.
The structural design of the hall was handled by National Institute of Technology – Karnataka, Surathkal. The planning, interior and exterior designs and the construction were done by the AAI.
Passengers of Jet Airways flight from Bangalore were the first to arrive through the new hall on Sunday at 9.25 a.m. They included Siddaramaiah, former Deputy Chief Minister; V.R. Sudarshan, MLC; Sugunendra Tirtha swamiji of Puttige Math, Udupi; P. Tamilvanan, chairman, New Mangalore Port Trust; and K.L. Gopalakrishna, Executive Director, Corporation Bank.
U.R. Sabhapathi, former Udupi MLA, and Jayaprakash Hegde, MLA of Brahmavar, were present.
Opened
A counter to sell products of Dakshina Kannada Milk Producers’ Union Ltd. (DKMUL) was opened on the premises of the airport on Sunday. Krishna J. Palemar, Surathkal MLA, inaugurated it.
K. Diwakar Shetty, president of DKMUL, was present.