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Journalism of Courage
Bangalore International Airport Ltd BIAL on Thursday said it would invest Rs 1,000 crore in capacity addition at the present terminal,as traffic volumes race towards beating previous projections.
BIAL would raise a loan of Rs 700 crore. The rest would be raised though offering additional equity and internal accruals,said GV Krishna Reddy,chairman,GVK Industries,and vice-chairman,BIAL.
Traffic at the airport is expected to exceed its capacity of 11 million passengers this year and would grow to 17 million by 2015. The current terminal is already nudging at full capacity. The challenge at hand is to provide for additional capacity as soon as possible, said Sanjay Reddy.
BIAL registered a profit of Rs 70 crore last fiscal,its second year of operation. The expansion,expected to be complete in 18 months,would be followed by a second terminal,said Reddy.
A passenger traffic analysis done two months ago projected 40 million passengers by 2025,way over the earlier estimate of 23 million,he said.Reddy said that the impact of the expansion plan on user development fee will only be clear when a methodology is arrived at by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority.
Expansion plans include increasing the floor area from the present 72,000 sq m to 134,000 sq m,adding more check-in counters,baggage reclaim belts and boarding gates. The airport would also have a boarding gate with Code F specifications to cater to an Airbus A380.
Our vision is to make the Bangalore airport a hub for South India, said Reddy. We clearly see Bangalore taking that role.
