Airport New Terminal Building Ready by April 2009

The Hindu
Mangalore, Nov 10: The additional premises of Mangalore Airport at Kenjar comprising new runway and terminal building will be completely functional by April 2009, said Transport, Civil Aviation and Tourism Parliamentary Standing Committee Member B Janardhana Poojary.
“As per contract, the works of terminal building will be completed by September 2008. Later, the offices of various aviation companies will also be shifted to the new premises. Thus, the new set up will be totally commissioned by April 2009,” he stated.
Poojary, who is also the member of Rajya Sabha, visited the airport on Friday and inspected the progress of the ongoing constructions. “About 35 per cent of the total construction has been over. A sum of Rs 55 crore has been spent for the new runway. Besides runway, the total project expenditure is Rs 147 crore,” he stated.
The upgradation works of the entire airport will cost Rs 210 crore. If a new proposal is sent for additional amount apart from the already sanctioned money (Rs 147 crore), that will also be provided. There is no scarcity of finance, he noted.
Nearer to Mangalore
The new Integrated Passenger Terminal Building being built at Kenjar for the past 4 months is about 16 km away from the City. The present Bajpe airport is at a distance of 8 km from this new set up. Thus, airport facility will be further nearer to the customers in the days to come. The new runway is 8,038 ft in length; 150 ft in width. The old runway is of 5,330 ft length. There will be 28 check-in counters in the new terminal building.
The State government has owned the responsibility of rehabilitating the displaced as a result of the new project. Most of the residents have already shifted. But there are still 20 families, out of whom many have agreed to be shifted. The set us is being laid in an area of 40 acres. If car parking space included, it will be 70 acres. The overall area to be used for the airport is 47,000 sq km Poojary explained.
Airport Director M R Vasudeva said the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest has just given green signal for the new set up just two days back. He said the present airport at Bajpe will be used for cargo movement, landing and take off of corporate and small flights.
Poojary expressed his satisfaction towards the speed in which the total project is progressing.