S.S. KARNADSHA writes from Bangalore: With 45 days to go before Bangalore’s new international airport (BIAL) takes off (imagine that!), a debate distilled in the drawing rooms has spilled on to the editorial pages with effortless ease.
Former Citibanker Ramesh Ramanathan, who runs Janaagraha, and R.K. Misra, who won the Times of India‘s “Lead India” contest recently, have raised a few questions. The other usual suspect, Infosys’ T.V. Mohandas Pai, has not stuck his neck out as yet, but with omnibus idealogue B.K. Chandrashekar joining the chorus, the countdown can begin. Like, now.
The single-point raga of this band of brothers (with sister Ramya Krishnamurthy of churumuri helpfully providing the tala) is: the old HAL airport should stay.
For two reasons: One, the long commute that one will have to endure given the condition of Bangalore’s roads, what with the approach road to the new airport still to take shape. And two, the new airport may not be able to handle the volume of air traffic because it has been ‘ill-planned’.
In short, they are suggesting that it is perfectly OK for the State government of Karnataka to renege the contract with the European consortium, which is building the new airport.
There is nothing new about Bangalore’s Page 3 types getting hyper about infrastructure, because they are in the business. Urban infrastructure is a happening area and there’s a lot in it for ‘experts’ and ‘consultants’, and all their acquired and accumulated expertise.
What is new is that the suits are speaking an anti-corporate language.
Without batting an eyelid, the very people who otherwise paint themselves as priests of propriety, who treat contracts as sacred tablets, are now voicing an intriguing variety of boardroom language, by advocating the violation of contracts that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has signed with the consortium!
Yenna Ramesh machchan, yenna matter?
Chukker kya hai, Misra-saab?
Even a cursory visit to the BIAL website makes two things clear: that there shall be only one airport in a 150-kilometre radius and that there shall be a levy of user development fees. Dig a little deeper, and you will find that the traffic forecast figures are being misrepresented by these wiseheads who otherwise have all the correct facts about all other issues at their fingertips.
The sudden wisdom of these gentlemen naturally raises some doubts in the minds of Bangaloreans who too care about the City’s well-being. I place their doubts through a series of questions:
1. Why did Ramanathan, Misra & Co wait this long to ask the questions? Did the roads go bad, did they discover that the approach road (“connectivity” in their jargon-filled lingo) was not ready only yesterday? Was Devanahalli chosen as the only day before? Was the airport plan approved only last week? After all, these are sages who have positioned themselves as having all the answers for India’s future challenges. Couldn’t they have visualised this scenario six months back, a year ago, two years ago? If they had generated the heat then, wouldn’t the government have woken up in time to do something? Are they now just trying to grab headlines or is there more to what meets the eye?
2. Ramya Krishnamurthy has a problem with user fees to be levied by the new airport unlike the Hyderabad airport. But isn’t it strange that these free-marketeers otherwise swear by revenue-models? Isn’t profitability at the core of all their thinking? Don’t they speak day-in and day-out about market forces, business models and vibrant fundamentals? If they want the user fee cancelled here, can we extend the same logic to the Bangalore-Mysore expressway that the NICE company is building or for that matter all toll-ways? Wasn’t user fee again part of the contract signed a long time ago? Why have they suddenly woken up to it fact now?
3. If reneging the contract with the European consortium passes muster in the name of the “stake-holders” (World Bank/IMF jargon for citizens), then why should this same lot frown when H.D. Deve Gowda suggested that a legislation should be passed to take over the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project being built by Ashok Kheny‘s company? If Ramesh, Misra & Co can make their case in the name of Bangalore’s “stake-holders”, what is so objectionable about Deve Gowda batting on behalf of farmers? Aren’t farmers “stake-holders” in a largely rural, agricultural country?
4. Is Ramesh Ramanathan taking up this issue as a Janaagraha activist or as a technial advisor for JNNURM or as a consultant to various government panels, ministries and state governments? Can Ramanathan assure us there is no conflict of interest in what he is doing and talking? Can Misra assure us he is not taking up cudgels on behalf of inhabitants of Electronic City, who will be severely affected by the relocation of the airport?
5. Would these people have been as vocal about retaining the old HAL airport and revocation of the user development fees had Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy continued as the chairman of the BIAL project and S.M. Krishna was chief minister? Is it not the same R.K Misra who had said that Narayana Murthy had quit as BIAL chairman much before Deve Gowda had tickled him on the wrong side? Meaning Gowda’s provocation was just an excuse for NRN?
Bonus question: If India reneges its contract with the United States on the nuclear deal will the likes of Ramesh Ramanathan, R.K. Misra and Ramya Krishnamurthy welcome it? After all the Left has a set of genuine questions too?
Also read: PPP is where Public is a puppy of Private
churumuri 
Well put. I don’t know why these worthies don’t understand that a contract is sacrosanct and cannot be violated except for conditions specified within the contract itself. Unfortunately for us, there are rags like the Times which are only too happy to oblige their verbal diarrhea, and the other newspapers have to do likewise to keep up.
I agree that the people of Bangalore have got a rotten deal. That’s nothing new, its been happening for many years now. Maybe, they’re running scared because their cosy way of life is now coming under threat?
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Mr. Karnadsha’s criticisms all seem to be of a personal nature. Is it Ramesh Ramanathan or Ramya Krishnamurthy’s day job to monitor Govt contracts? Can’t they as interested citizens voice unfair clauses in the contract.
BTW Mr. Karnadsha could you please substantiate your claims about the traffic figures being misrepresented? Churmuri I find it hard to believe that you allowed tripe like this to be posted.
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The logic behind #2 is flawed. User dev fees is no big deal for the flight hopping techie whose expenses are paid by his MNC, Or for a rich NRI visiting his home land religiously once a year during vacation. But for many others like my uncles prefer to travel from Hyderabad instead of Bangalore as they are saving 10k+ perhead. Bangalore is closer to them than Hyd. Though I donot have legal proof but I trust what they say. In a competetive world you, when you are aspiring to be South Asian transit hub, you cannot have UDF as your core revenue model. NICE is a different ball game altogether there is a alternative FREE road to Mysore within 50 KM radius if you donot want to pay.
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I too want Banaglore to retain the name instead of Bengaluru.
I too want Bangalore to be the City for Public sector heavy weights and not software / Bpo / Kpo / Call centre companies.
I too want the salary paid to Mohandas Pai and Kiron Shah .
I too want to hold 5 % or 10 % f Infosys / Biocon / Reliance.
I too want to gift a AEroplane to my fiancee.
I too Want to become a humble farmer turned PM of the country.
I too want to have affairs with starlets while in office.
I too want to have my own SENA to boot out the Krv’s and MNS.
I too want …………….. and the list can go on forever.
@ the end of the day WISHES will remain as DREAMS and it is better to be practical rather than be provoked by some small time politicians and page 3 celebreties who have nothing much to do than be in the news.
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People are polarized on the issue, and not much of a solution can emerge from the embers of instigated emotions. It is quite apparent that we were caught napping on the access to the airport. All including the consortium, the government, media and the public. Now that we are in this situation, the effort should be on mitigating it. If reneging is one end of the spectrum, not doing anything citing 150km quarantine is the other diametric end of it. In between, there is a lot of middle ground that will benefit both and more importantly the public.
Reneging the contract will set a bad and unjust precedent. We should not do that ; we are better than that. Having said the above, the access problem is real. It will be a nightmare to get to the airport. Electronics City(EC) to Devanahalli is more than 1/2 the road travel to Chennai from EC. So why bother ? It begs for a solution.
We all goofed up. HAL was to be closed but given the current situation the government should own up it’s faux pas with regard to the oversight and get the consortium to the table. We should not renege, but we cannot sit on our palms either ?
The options should include keeping HAL. But it should also include compensating the consortium for a percentage of “their loss” and making them pay for “their part” in the oversight — let’s be fair. As a part of the solution if there are benefits to having HAL for an additional year till we get the infrastructure ramped up (with the consortium being compensated for a breach and penalized for their part in the oversight) we can get thru this.
Sure, it will have it’s share of problems in terms of two airports who goes where et all, but if it helps and can be managed, why not ?
We erred, lets get our heads together and figure out a way. We need to relinquish the moral high grounds we are perched on and stop the name calling at the opposite rim of the canyon. We need to get down to the pits and think thru to come to a practical solution. Contracts are routinely ammended/altered, but for a price. What we need is not a renege, but an amendment to ensure the problems are alleviated for the general public.
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I think there is a lot of finger-pointing going on and issues seem to be getting lost in between. Nothing is non-negotiable. I am sure that the consortium would be willing to have an amendment. If their interests are not unduly affected, with the HAL airport being partially open, they should not have any objection.
Some of the alternatives could be to introduce check-in services at HAL and an airline authorized helicopter ferry service or a bus-coach service from HAL to/from BIAL to have lesser traffic till the access road is complete.
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I had written a response on the “Contract-reneging” being suggested by Ms. Ramya Krishnamurthy. Pat came a one line reply from Ms. Ramya that she is all for “honouring” contracts even though she had blatantly suggested otherwise in the article.
Thanks, SS Karnadsha for a well-argued piece.
What MG Rao says makes eminent sense. Contracts can be renegotiated. If nothing else works, the Govt which already holds a 13% stake in the airport can offer to buyout the BIAL by paying for the rest 74% (13% is with AAI) plus a reasonable profit for the private players like Siemens/L&T. Let the government pay up for its laziness and stupidity.
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Speaking against User fee of about 600 rupees shows the mindset of our rich class people. Cant a person ready to spend 5000 rupees afford an extra 600 bucks… if not he should travel in train…. As for R k misra he is not a born leader bcoz leaders leaders dont wait for a competition to prove their mettle…. they do it on their own… and he does not know kannada and the history of karnataka.. how can he lead karnataka then?…. he is just one person who goes on giving lectures on every topic on sun…. Kis bayi dasa
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Very ordinary and it is fine if this kind of stuff appears elsewhere, but……
– Traffic forecast – There are multiple forecasts done by multiple agencies at different times. Naturally, there are numbers to support different views
– Contracts – All contracts will have clauses to re-negotiate and penalties to be paid in such scenario. It is not uncommon or bad to renogiate any contract
– Names mentioned above – All of them are well aware of far more details about the airport, potential travel issues etc. than projected here (or author’s perception). Solution for any problem depends on state of the problem (for e.g., 15 months back, solution to travel-to-airport is to build good approach road, but now that is not feasible and thus need to find alternate. So, please understand that there is no one-fixed solution for any problem at all times.
– In addition to putting useless cribs, why not propose some solutions and open it for debate…Rather than…..
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Though I don’t owe allegiance to the corporation you have mentioned, I strongly support their views. What is wrong in what there are asking? Don’t you think it is logical? To your 5 points –
1 The pressure for having better connectivity has been there are all along. It is not that it has come up in the last few weeks or months. If these guys have pitched in late so what? Better late than never!! It is sad that our governments are doing so badly. Don’t blame these guys!!
2 “Free market” – when there is restrictions on airports within 150 KM, do you still call it a free market? NICE is a different case, there is already a 4 lane road, so if NICE has to survive then they will have to provide services that justify the extra money they charge. What is wrong in implementing the same logic for the airports?
3 I agree with you on this. Farmers should be made “stake-holders”. If you ask my view – they should be made stake holders in every SEZ for which their land is taken. But the point here is about Mr Gowda real intentions?
4 How will you defend this – what prevents someone from saying that you could have been funded by vested interests to write this article!!!! What point are you trying to make here. Is it not an attempt to sensationalize the issue? If you have some facts why don’t you share it?
5 No point is talking about “If”s and “But”s. Do you little bit and work towards solving the issues rather than questioning the incredibility of the involved people.
It is good to see that people who are not basically from Bangalore doing so much. The user charge that they are talking about is illogical. It will just kill the low cost airlines. In many cases the cost of the air ticket will be lesser than what it costs to get to the airport and pay the user charges!!
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There will always be questions just as there are leaders. Remember both questions and leaders may be 1) well-meaning; 2) ill-informed 3) mischievous 4)umm, helbidla…”sponsored.”
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The choice of the location is sometimes baffling to me. I think a few Andhra politicians may have had their say in airport being located where it is. I have seen atleast 5 or 6 ads in newspapers promoting hindupura and kuppam(Chandrababu’s Hometown), claiming that they are only an hours drive from international Airport.. Idna mysore roadallo tumkiur roadnallo maadidre chanda itteno!
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Sir Ella sari TOIlet paper promoted ivnyaavono RK misranige yaake bereyavarashte dodda maNe haaktideera?
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Dear All,
Please hold on to your dhotis! Just imagine the nightmare scenario of having to transit from a domestic flight to international ones! Besides HAL airport is next to ASTE which is a military establishment (they want full access to wanting to try out new things). The sooner the HAL airport closes, the better. Sure access to the new airport should be made simple. These are typical starting teething problems in India. HAL airport is a disgrace. It may provide a very convenient to access to a few ”protesters’ who make their way to Delhi to get a few awards now and then! As for protesters, they should start working with the government.
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What is RK Misra ‘s locus standi on this bangalore airport issue. Why are we giving so much importance to him? What is with this Ramesh Ramanthan doing in this BIAL problems? Why is he raking up the issue? Is it a ploy to besmirch BIAL?
As Koppal Haida mentioned, the original site for BIAL was Bidadi on mysore road. But our own Sin of the soil DG had it relocated to Devanahalli when he was the PM.
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What Bangalore badly needs is a bigger airport. The HAL Airport is a disaster waiting to happen. Ramesh, Misra and the like will do well to keep their mouths shut.
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It is interesting – All these so called IT bigwigs (as you say PAGE 3 celebs – I call them idiots) wake up and demand that the contract be re negotiated because the opening of the new airport inconveniences them – Tough luck – the airport where it is now inconveniences me — too bad for you that you had to drive – it was the IT sector that demanded the new airport and it is laughable that at the twilight of getting the airport open they have problems..
Mebe if these IT companies pay some taxes and pay for theinfrastructure they use,t he city would be better half. We need more people who can work for the welfare of the city not barking dogs like naryan murthy who are more interested in lining their pockets at everybody’s expense.
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The biggest culprit in this entire tamasha is … none other than the World’s leading newspaper ( TOI ??)
Its TOI’s relentless propaganda, supported by mouthpieces like Kiran Shaw , Misra, et al (all of whom happen to live v far, sadly, from BIAL) that has caused these stupid issues to come up for discussion in the first place.
Unfortunately , there is no remedy, as TOIs competetion itself is trying to slowly clone the leader
R Ghai
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I think a lot of people arguing for UDF are missing some points.
1. UDF is charged as a flat rate. Which in a way is fair, but it works to the disadvantage of the people who take short flights. UDF of Rs.600 on a Delhi ticket may only be 10% but on a Hyderabad or Chennai ticket of Rs.2300 it is almost 25%. The tolls too have to be realistic. If not, why have a difference between international and domestic UDF? Why not the same Rs.1,200?? Rs.1200 on an international ticket is only 1-3% of the ticket cost, why a domestic flyer should subsidise an international flyer or vice versa? So, obviously some rational was found to keep it different, so similar rational should be applicable to Shorter flights versus longer flights. Ideally, it should be a percentage of the ticket cost.
2. It is no ones case that Govt. should renege on promises made to BIAL, which is basically an assurance of ROI protection. As long as the assumed ROI is protected, in public interest some clauses can always be renegotiated.
Eg: There is patent law in India. In case a pharma company invents a drug for a fatal illness, that all of a sudden infects a few million people, and the company can’t produce it in large enough quantity at an reasonable cost, Govt. will be well within its right to force the pharma company to share the drug protected by law with other pharma companies.
3. The right method of renegotiating is not to coerce BIAL but give an alternative revenue model. In any case a 150km radius monopoly for 30 years is unlikely to survive a legal challenge.
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i think churumuri should repost this. it has a lot of relevance for what is happening today. where is misra and ramanathan? why are they not commenting on their guru’s (NRN) role in ‘messing up’ BIAL – after all he was the chairman for four long years. either they have to dispute the genius of their guru, who guided BIAL from its infancy to its construction stage and was very much a part when all contracts were being signed, or they have to come out in the open and eat their own words. why should we always suspect politicians. let us for once place the blame at the doorstep of our corporate visionaries.
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sir a Airport will come to Hosur its nesary a airport
in Hosur to people to travel in India pls
a airport in Hosur to connect all places in India
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