If you thought the new international airport at Devanahalli in Bangalore will solve your flying woes, think again.
Flying out of Bangalore may become more expensive with the Bangalore International Airport Limited proposing to levy a user development fee (UDF).
BIAL proposes to levy UDF of Rs 675 on domestic passengers and Rs 955 on international passengers. This would mean that every passenger flying out of Bangalore will have to cough up this additional amount.
The UDF adds up to the woes of the passengers who are already fretting about the time taken to reach the new airport, which will be operational from 28 March, 2008. Sources said that the levy of the fee is still at a proposal stage and needs to be cleared by the ministry of civil aviation, which apparently has reservations over such a steep fee being levied on the passengers.
However, as per the concession agreement between the two parties, levying of such a fee is
permissible. The ministry states that although this is permissible, there must be discussions on reducing the amount. Discussions in this regard are slated to be held shortly following which a final decision will be taken, sources in the ministry said.
The main reason for such a levy being imposed by the implementers of the project is to recover investment costs. They are aiming at generating revenue from both the passengers as well as the airlines.
This is the last thing that the passengers would like to pay for. First of all, they have to travel at least 40 kilometres to reach the new airport. There have been various issues regarding the connectivity to the new airport from the city.
The governor of Karnataka who is in charge of the administration -- as President's rule is in place in Karnataka -- is expected to hold a series of meetings in the coming days to discuss on making the connectivity to the new airport more friendly.