Forgotten milestones in the BIAL saga

Important and mostly forgotten dates in the BIAL saga

• Project conceived in 1991
• June 1998 Tata-Changi-Raytheon consortium walks out over delay in clearance
• May 1999: MoU signed between KSIIDC and Airport Authority of India
• June 1999: Expression of interest invited
• November 8, 2000: Bidders asked to submit detailed project report
• October 29, 2001: Siemen's led consortium selected by Government of Karnataka
• Jan 23, 2002: Shareholders agreement signed
• Jan 2002: Ex-PM Vajpayee performed ground breaking
• Stake holders meeting held in Jan 2003
• Ex-CM SM Krishna performed ground breaking (again!!!) in Jan 2004
• July 2004: Concession agreement signed between State Govt., Govt of India and BIAL
• NOC (No Objection Certificate) pending from Defence Ministry
• Dec 21, 2004: Final clearance given by Dharam Singh govt
• Jan 20, 2005: State support agreement between State Govt and BIAL
• Jan 20, 2005: Land lease agreement between State Govt and BIAL
• March 11, 2005: EPC contracts with Siemens (Germany and India) and L&T
• April 8, 2005: Operation and maintenance agreement - BIAL & Unique Zurich
• April 6, 2005: CNS/ATM agreement between BIAL and AAI
• April 30, 2005: Land lease deed signed BIAL and KSIIDC
• June 10, 2005: Extension of shareholders' agreement
• June 22, 2005: SBI guarantee to state support of Rs 350 crore
• June 23, 2005: Declaration of financial closure by ICICI Bank
• July 2, 2005: Construction commencement date
• November 20, 2006: Concession Agreement amended
• March 7, 2008: First test flight from Bangalore HAL airport to BIAL
• May 24, 2008: BIAL commences operations

As of March, 31 2008 some statistics of the Bangalore HAL airport are as follows :

• 3rd busiest domestic airport in India
• Just 5% behind Chennai as 3rd busiest overall airport in India
  
• AAI operated terminal handled 10.12 million passengers a year
• 311 commercial flights per day
• Additional 30~40 general aviation and defence flights per day
• HAL ATC considered amongst most efficient in the country
  

The state set up a committee in August/Sept 2001 to negotiate the final deal with the promoters. The committee was given a mandate to get the best value for money by exploring avenues of optimising project cost and reducing state support. The committee included :

1. Krishna Kumar, Principal Secretary Infrastructure
2. B.K. Das, Principal Secretary Urban Development
3. H.S. Kempanna, law secretary
4. K. Jairaj, CEO BIAL
5. Nasser Munjee, M.D., Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation
6. Robert Wadel, President & CEO, Waddel Engineering Corporation [USA]

Some of the information was sourced from Karnataka.com