The much-delayed Kalaburagi airport is likely to see the light of day as the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has approved the trial landing of aircraft. The proposed touchdown of the first aircraft is scheduled. According to official reports, of the three packages, 80% of works, taken up under Package I and Package II at a cost of ₹90.66 crore and Rs 31.12 crore respectively have been completed. Of the total allocation of Rs 90.66 crore in Package I, the Public Works Department has spent around Rs 74.26 crore for constructing the 3.27-km runway, the 9.7 km peripheral road, and the compound wall. In the Package II, as much as Rs. 7.28 crore is spent on building the terminal building, Air Traffic Control (ATC) building, electrical sub-station building, crash fire rescue building, underground tank, signage and direction boards. Work on installing the Airfield Lighting System, automatic weather session instrument cables, air conditioning, baggage system, flight information display system are in progress. Officials said the completion of these works was not a prerequisite for trial landing. They expect the remaining works to be completed in a month to make the airport ready for operations in October. The former Chief Minister Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa had laid the foundation stone for the project to be developed by June 2008. The contract for building the airport went to Gulbarga Airport Development Ltd. (GADL), a Special Purpose Company, in 2007. But delays in completion led to the termination of the agreement in 2015 and the State government handed over the remaining works to the Public Works Department. Initially, the government had decided to limit the runway length to 1,000 metres, but later extended it to 1,970 m to facilitate the landing of larger aircraft. However, on the insistence of the former Union Minister Mr M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who is from Kalaburagi, the length of the runway was further extended to 3,200 m to enable the landing of bigger aircraft, such as an Airbus. The width of the runway was also widened from 45 m to 60 m.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/
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