The industry leaders, politicians and socialites are running a campaign that the existing domestic HAL airport and the new Bangalore International Airport should operate concurrently. “You know it would take 2 hours to reach the new airport, when the journey to Chennai takes only 30 minutes which will be quite unfair,” they moan and groan. Well, where were they at the time when the north Bangaloreans were slogging through the traffic to reach the HAL airport to catch a flight? Where were they when Bangalore International Airport Limited(BIAL) and the government were inking the agreement which said that the whole business shall be moved to the new airport because only then it would make business sense for the company? Where where they when the Karnataka government took nearly 15 years to decide the location of the airport? BIAL made a promise and delivered. Did the new airport become a reality overnight? Yet the government woke up in January just two months before the inaugration of the new airport to build its first underpass (to provide signal free route to the new airport).

I am sure that if the HAL airport continues to function, work on the new underpasses and other means to improve the roads and railways will slow down. Let’s not forget that our government responds only to crisis. If that is the reality, let us not help slow down the process. We need to crawl for some months to keep the attention of the government focused on the infrastructure. For every benefit, there is a cost. Let us all collectively pay that cost. You very well know that we are living in a country where the political leaders say that we need to cut down the production of cars because our roads cannot take them. We will strengthen that view if we provide an escape route. If we must work on a compromise, our proposal should be a win-win one. Don’t forget that “a promise is a promise”.

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