One more example of commodification of women

Real reasons we are using this picture: Because it is a Saturday. Because we like movies. Because we like good-looking women. Because her name is Ramya. Because, well, she is good looking. And because a good Kannadiga has just been allotted the external affairs ministry portfolio.

Intellectual reasons for using this picture: Because an actress pressing flesh with underprivileged kids to the pop of the flashbulbs should not go unnoticed even if it is, well, a stage-managed photo-op. And because “brands” should not lose faith in the perceived ability of brand ambassadors to attract eyeballs.

Photograph: Underprivileged children from the NGO Vistar get a feel of the insides of a Kingfisher Airlines plane at the first anniversary celebrations of Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) on Saturday. (Karnataka Photo News)

Also read: Another example of commodification of women—Part I

The sexiest South Indian South Asian women

Stray dogs, now boarding from gate number 6

M.K. VIDYARANYA writes from Bangalore: The dog menace continues to, well, dog the new Bangalore International Airport.

BIAL may claim that it has taken tough measures to prevent canines from loitering around. But, this picture, shot at 6.30 am on November 24, shows that every dog still has his day in Devanahalli.

The dog sat shivering in the cold.

Too faithful to leave, too frightened to run.

And hungry as hell, waiting for the crumbs thrown from the departure lounge.

It used to be that way, now it is this way. Sorry.

The old HAL airport falls off the map near the Raj Bhavan in Bangalore as a new one opens shop on the other side of town.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

As if BMTC was only a Universal Serial Bus service

NANDITA J, in a letter to the editor of Deccan Herald:

“While waiting at the bus stand, I recently experienced some of the resentment commonly voiced against the ‘greater mortals’—the IT folk!

“Half an hour had passed without a single bus stopping by as the numbers of the waiting lot multiplied. Public buses were plenty but they were all ferrying the folks from Infosys, Wipro, etc.

“Should public property be used to serve private companies?

“For the comfort of a minuscule percentage of Bangaloreans travelling by air, trees have been massacred, roads widened and special AC buses pressed into service. The pricing is so exorbitant that no ordinary commuter can afford it. As a result these Vayu Vajras and Suvarnas run mostly empty or occupied to not more than five per cent capacity.

“But what else can you expect in the new capitalist India? Truly, there is no value for life here, specially if you happen to be poor.”

Photograph: courtesy Aseef Syed via Picasa

Also read: Three reasons why everybody loves to hate IT

M.S. PRABHAKARA: Why shouldn’t old men be mad at Bangalore?

C.N.R. RAO: If IT takes away Bangalore’s values, burn IT

Bangalore’s best building since Vidhana Soudha?

RAMYA KRISHNAMURTHY writes from Bangalore: Despite what Infosys’ T.V. Mohandas Pai told us, the new Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) hasn’t seen IT business plunge “by 30 per cent”. Despite what V. Ravichandar told us, Tamil Nadu hasn’t announced a rival airport in Hosur.

Despite what Janagrahaa’s Ramesh Ramanathan told us, nobody has found any issues with “connectivity” although a few poor souls have perished in establishing that. And despite what Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said, a grave “crisis” hasn’t come upon us due to the new airport.

Yet.

In fact, having used the airport more than a few times in the last couple of months, I would do two things. One, I would publicly disavow my initial apprehensions and declare it the most magnificent “public” structure Bangalore has built since the Vidhana Soudha, and that was 50 years ago.

The new airport is everything the old HAL airport was not—clean, unfussy, functional, well lit, and passenger-friendly with lots of space to walk around, park the car, etc. Above all, it is the best advertisement for “Brand Bangalore” than the cattle fair the old airport was.

And two, I would publicly vow to take the “wisdom” of Bangalore’s self-apppointed “experts” who have “seen the world” with a pound of smooth-flowing iodised salt, and not just on the airport but on any issue, henceforth.

The only problem I have with the new airport are public transport costs.

Mysore to Bangalore: Distance 140 km. Fare by KSRTC-run Volvo bus Rs 200. Approximately 20-30 passengers on board. Translates to roughly Rs 1.5 per km.

Majestic to Devanahalli: Distance 35 km. Fare by BMTC-run Volvo Rs 125. Approximately 10-15 passengers on board. Translates to roughly Rs 3.5 per km.

Any wonder BMTC claimed a few years ago that it was the only profitable public transport system in Asia?

Profitable, yes, but “public” transport?

Photograph: Prashant Krishnamurthy

Also read: Edifice complex complex kills our cities, then our citizens

Edifice Complex kills our cities, then our citizens

With the number of air passengers from Bangalore to Madras apparently dropping by as much as 60 to 70 per cent, Narendar Pani calls the new Bangalore International Airport a classic example of huge expenses being expended on a project with uncertain returns, in Mail Today:

“Those who plan for India’s cities today have been afflicted by what has been called, in another time and another place, as the Edifice Complex. For those who suffer from this complex, the development of a city is measured by the number of large projects it tries to implement…. Once policy makers develop an Edifice Complex all other criteria are thrown out of the window.

“The Edifice Complex of Bangalore’s urban planners has now reached a point where the city is taking great pains to make things worse for itself. Each of these high-cost projects raises the price of the service it provides, thereby hugely raising the cost of living in Bangalore. And then there is the indirect effect as well. As large unviable projects are sought to be made viable by giving the investors more land than they need, there is an upward pressure on real estate prices as well. This in turn makes the city even more unaffordable. It may be just a matter of time before Bangalore prices itself out of its rightful place in the global network of cities.”

Also read: Will airport in Hosur steal Bangalore’s thunder?

Is Mysore airport jinxed even before takeoff?

PPP is where Public is a puppy of the Private

Welcome to Deve Gowda International Airport?

The Manmohan Singh government has reportedly decided to name Lucknow’s airport after former prime minister Chaudhury Charan Singh (in return for his son Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal’s support during the trust vote next Tuesday).

Now, Our Lactose-Deficient Correspondent in East Delhi reports that there are whispers in the eastern parts of East Delhi that the Janata Dal Secular may pledge its support if the Bangalore International Airport is named after the former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

“Congress will say yes to anything now. They can withdraw it at leisure after July 22,” he writes.

Also read: Tipu Sultan versus Kempe Gowda?

Is there a good reason why we are where we are?

An Indian visitor, any Indian visitor, who steps outside the subcontinent and goes east or west is immediately struck by the value that is placed on the human life. The footpaths don’t suck you in. Motorised vehicles stop for you if you are crossing the street. Buildings have easy-access ramps for the handicapped. And the public toilets and rest areas are as clean as hospital ICUs.

An Indian or NRI returning home from east or west, on the other hand, is struck by how little our netas and babus have learnt from a million “study tours”. Trivial issues dominate the discourse: Road and rail blockades by the agitator-of-the-day. Blackening of English sign boards by language activists. Bans on books, films, paintings by the moral police.

Parks, playgrounds and other public property are in the ICUs.

In the sixth and final episode of his six-part series, “Our Man in China” T.J.S. George writes on how his heart sank to see China doing the same in Hong Kong to his beloved Star Ferry. And how it suddenly soared.

***

By T.J.S. GEORGE in Hong Kong

For generations of imperial fortune hunters, Hong Kong was a corner of a foreign field that was for ever England. The funny thing is that, 10 years after the People’s Republic of China acquired full sovereignty over the erstwhile colony, Hong Kong still remains what the British made of it.

The Red Flag flies over government buildings, of course. But Macdonnell Road and Robinson Road still commemorate Messrs Macdonnell and Robinson whoever they were. There is no rail roko demanding their renaming. Hong Kong’s superb airport is known simply as Hong Kong International Airport. There is nothing like the cries that were heard for Chhatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj in Mumbai or are now being heard for Kempe Gowda in Banga… er, Bengaluru.

Although the yuan Renminbi is China’s official currency, the old Hong Kong dollar holds sway in this special territory. Indeed, the currency notes continue to be issued by that famous limb of colonialism, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, complete with the British lion (which is very different from the Chinese lion).

Across the waters in Macau, the Portuguese flavour is maintained undisturbed. The currency there is still the Pataka. Signboards are in Chinese and Portuguese. Street names remain as unpronounceable to the non-Portuguese tongue as before. The Rua Norte do Mercado de S. Domingos, for example.

It must be that when you are confident about your inner strength, you don’t waste your energy on superficialities. The Government of China is the supreme authority in Hong Kong and Macau. Once that is established beyond doubt, all energies can be directed towards one goal—continually improving the quality of life in these mega metropolises.

That is exactly what is happening. The iconic symbol of Hong Kong is the Star Ferry, the green boats that plough the harbour to and fro every few minutes. I was scandalised when I saw the old familiar Star Ferry pier on the island demolished.

Feeling betrayed, I walked about the area which had been turned into a major construction site.  Another commercial building, I thought, cursing real estate tycoons.

Then I noticed that posters had been pasted on the temporary walls enclosing the vast construction site.  They gave details of the work in progress.  The authorities were constructing there “The New Central Waterfront—An Arts and Entertainment Corridor.”

The large posters, carrying text and artist’s projection of proposed facilities, graphically told the passing citizen (or visitor) what was coming up on the corridor. “A waterfront of international standard as well as a harbour for the people, a harbour of life, will be developed here for an unrivalled passive recreational open space with spectacular views across the everchanging harbour.”

Make an allowance for the bureaucratic English and you learn that “the corridor will comprise a network of bridge and deck links. New small and large-scale cultural and recreational developments will be provided.”  And it was reassuringly mentioned that “the iconic Star Ferry terminal will be recreated.”

Look at the attitude of mind at government level.  They not only pull down an already developed area and rebuild it in ultramodern style to ensure enhanced “public enjoyment”; full details of the plans are placed before the people for them to know what’s going on.

(For comparison, look at the “improvements” in the arterial road to the new airport at Bangalore. The public never knew what the scheme was and how a stretch of road was being altered until the work actually neared completion.)

The difference between a developed country and a developing one is that public facilities are conceptualised and put in place for the convenience of the public. You notice that when you drive around in America, go to the theatre in London, take the underground in Paris, find your way in sprawling airports like Frankfurt.

By that yardstick, China is a developed country already.

Countries in East Asia have their problems, but they are making rapid progress in making life easy and comfortable for their citizens.

Their standards are conitnually rising. Are ours? At some point we need to ask about the meaning of big growth rates and big company acquisitions, and why, alongside the burgeoning mall life, slum life is also burgeoning.  Even Malaysia has abolished poverty.

In the end, why are we where we are?

Photograph: Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon, originally uploaded by GluehweinEffects/ Flickr.

Us and them: Brick & mortar versus click & cursor

Several weeks ago, churumuri contributor ASHWINI A. alerted us about the tale of two airports.

The Cochin international airport (left) at Nedumbassery, she said, seemed to embody the essence of Kerala architecture at every corner and in every cornice. Red-tiles, slanting roofs, towering spires, traditional windows… Cochin’s airport is decidedly traditional —and local—at least from outside.

The facade of the new Bangalore international airport (right) at Devanahalli, on the other hand, is another cup of by-two coffee. Lean, functional and futuristic, it looked no different from IT city’s impersonal and characterless glass castles, hurriedly and cheaply assembled to execute the next order.

Turns out that Ashwini is not alone in her observation.

Mohammed Shariff writes in today’s New Indian Express in an article titled “This airport simply hasn’t taken off”:

“The entire [BIAL] airport looks like a block of hollow concrete bricks. Add to it flawed design and bad colour combination and it looks positively aesthetically challenged. There are no exciting forms—it is just a block-shaped building with lots of glass glued on to it….

“The graphic inside gives you the feel of an old government office built without any architectural sense. The signage and other info graphics are very badly done, with no thought, apparently, to aesthetic value….

“You could easily mistake the first floor of the airport for the Forum Mall. I did not see anything that reflects Indian architecture, anything that represents our core values; or which tells the world that we are no longer a developing nation.”

Is there anything that Siemens, the builders of BIAL, could have adopted that suggests Kannada or Karnataka? Does Karnataka or Bangalore have architecture, like Kerala’s, that could be called uniquely its own? Do airline passengers, even if they are international tourists, bother with design? Would a better design have left BIAL visitors with a better impression?

Also read: After all, an airport doesn’t open/close every day

I’ve seen the future in Hyderabad and it works

Country cuisine crashlands in new airport

After all, an airport doesn’t open/close every day

Change is the only constant in life. And, last night, as the first Air India flight landed at the gleaming new Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli, beaming passengers were welcomed with flowers and bouquets (top) not by touts and auto drivers.

Meanwhile, at the HAL airport at the other end of the City, a wistful young Muslim family got off from their two-wheeler on the ring road (middle) to catch sight of one of the last flights to land at a landmark that was but no longer is.

And somewhere in between the past and the future, the self-appointed soldiers of the land (below) were bringing further glory to Karnataka and Kannadigas by unashamedly turning the naming of the airport into a caste issue, Balagangadharanath “swamiji” was threatening an “anahutha” (disaster) if the name of Kempe Gowda wasn’t slapped on to the new airport.

***

The new airport saw the usual teething troubles in its first few hours. A flight that was supposed to land didn’t, and a flight that wasn’t supposed to, did. And the queues were still there as passengers waited to board a flight to Singapore (top).

But for the Kingfisher cabin crew it was a real breeze entering the new airport without having to wade through autos, motorycles, cars, cargo vans, taxis, luggage carts, passengers, visitors, relatives and sometimes whole villages (bottom, left). And as the first flight landed, BIAL chief Albert Bruner welcomed the captain and in-flight crew (bottom, right).

Photographs: Karnataka Photo News

Full coverage: CHURUMURI POLL: Tipu Sultan versus Kempe Gowda?

Will airport in Hosur steal Bangalore’s thunder?

I have seen the future in Hyderabad and it works

M’am, can I have one more of these lovely balls?

5 + 1 questions for M/s Ramesh Ramanathan, R.K. Misra & Co

Is the Mysore airport jinxed even before it takes off?

PPP is where Public is a puppet of the Private

Country cuisine crashlands at new airport

CHURUMURI POLL: Tipu Sultan vs Kempe Gowda?

The Bangalore International Airport is due to open on Friday, 23 May 2008, and already the battlelines are being drawn—and redrawn. On the one hand, the captains of Bangalore industry are out on the streets demanding that the old HAL airport be kept open keeping in mind Bangalore’ future potential. And, on the other hand, a right royal battle has broken out over the name of the new airport.

BIAL had perhaps thought that the issue could be swept under the carpet by calling it Bengaluru International Airport. But the CPM’s Sitaram Yechuri has said it should be named after Tipu Sultan, who was born in Devanahalli where the new airport is located. And now the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike has jumped into the scene, demanding that the airport be named after Kempe Gowda.

Questions: Who should the airport be named after? Tipu or Gowda? Are there other worthies deserving of the honour? Sir M. Visvesvaraya maybe? How much longer before someone demands that it be named after Dr Raj Kumar? Is this just a meaningless debate or a genuine expression of identity? If airports in Bombay and Delhi and Hyderabad, and Chicago and New York and Paris can be named after towering individuals, why not Bangalore’s?

Will airport in Hosur steal Bangalore’s thunder?

The new Bangalore International Airport will open at the crack of 23 May 2008. That’s official.

And the existing HAL airport will close at the end of 22 May 2008. That’s official, too.

This, despite mounting public opinion to keep the old airport open. This, despite the High Court of Karnataka directing the Union of India, the Airports Authority of India, and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) to renegotiate the terms of the contract which barred airports in a 150-km radius of Devanahalli. And this, despite the Supreme Court of India endorsing the HC’s call for renegotiation.

What kind of a case was made by the “State” during the renegotiations is not known since there are reportedly no minutes of the two rounds of meetings. But the last-minute demands and Public Interest Litigations (PILs) to retain the HAL airport for short-haul flights have raised a variety of questions on those asking them, their motives, their logic, and their business ethics.

V. RAVICHANDAR, a former member of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), responds to criticism on churumuri.com on the backpedalling on the closure of the old airport.

***

By V. RAVICHANDAR

First, a confession. Till November last year, I was for honouring the sanctity of the contract with Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) and closing down the old HAL airport.

I have since revised my view and I shall present my case for being a “turncoat” shortly.

A disclaimer: asking for HAL airport to remain open does not mean one is anti-BIAL. BIAL is the future and is needed for the city. But HAL can co-exist with BIAL being compensated.

These are the reasons why the HAL airport should remain open even when the BIAL airport becomes functional (and none of them is about connectivity at all) :

# Future proofing is in the public interest: The capacity of BIAL is 12 million passengers. We are currently at 10.5 million passengers annually and we will reach current capacity by middle of 2009. With one runway the capacity can go to 14-15 million passengers, a number that will be reached by mid-2011. The new runway (if it does come up) will not be before 2014 (admitted by BIAL and the government). So expect shortage in capacity between 2011-14. I am not even referring to cargo which is reasonably messed up in the short term for the next year at BIAL.

# Hyderabad isn’t Bangalore: One argument being heard for the closure of HAL airport is that Hyderabad closed Begumpet airport, so what is the big fuss?

The situation in Hyderabad and Bangalore is not comparable. Hyderabad has a current demand of 6.5 million passengers and an airport with a capacity of 12 million passengers.

GMR has built the Hyderabad airport on a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Andhra Pradesh; BIAL has built the Bangalore airport on a contract obtained after a global tender floated by the government of Karnatka.

# Keep working assets alive: For a rapidly growing economy like India’s, conserving working infrastructure assets makes sense (I do sound like Prakash Karat here). Closing down a working asset especially when it is known that we are going to run into a capacity constraint seems a silly thing to do.

And spending Rs 4,000 crore of public money on a high speed rail link from KSCA for a Rs 2,220 crore airport project is questionable when alternatives exist. And this spending for the fat cats is not going to go down well with aam aadmi.

# Infrastructure monopoly isn’t good: A private sector monopoly in the infrastructure sector is not in the public interest particularly in the absence of a strong regulator. As it is, in Hyderabad, two-wheelers are not allowed into the new airport and a passenger cannot take a private taxi not licensed by the Hyderabad airport. Do we want that situation here?

I think a duopoly will keep both parties honest in the interest of citizens. Two airports will strengthen State competitiveness, investments, job creation, etcetera.

# Tamil Nadu will steal Bangalore’s thunder: Closing HAL airport will be a self-goal. Expect Tamil Nadu to announce a Hosur airport in due course post final closure. And expect that to join Hogenakal as an issue sometime down the line.

Hosur may be within the 150 km radius of Devanahalli, but the compulsions of coalition politics can move mountains in our country. As it is, the Sitaram Yechuri panel has said the 150 km radius clause should be scrapped, and airport developers should accept realities of India, instead of expecting to be given a free run.

***

The contract with BIAL is not cast in stone.

For example, in a recent contract for Peru airport, 70-odd conditions were renegotiated.

The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models are imperfect and they are being honed with each experience.

The global tender when it was first floated for BIAL did not have the closure of HAL airport as a promise. It was in 2004, just before the concession agreement was signed, that BIAL insisted on it. And the Ministry of Civil Aviation agreed.

***

I realize a suggestion such as keeping HAL airport open at this juncture has consequences. Let me deal with them:

# It is not my case that HAL be kept open and BIAL can take a walk. BIAL is in the driver’s seat with the contract. I am for users of HAL airport compensating BIAL on terms to be decided—the general public should not be made to pay for it.

I think market can decide the demand and adjust supply accordingly. For instance, the fare to Bombay from HAL airport can be Rs 5,500 and from BIAL to Bombay, it fare can be Rs 4,200. The difference is given to BIAL. This can be decided by auctioning slots too. BIAL could be made a shareholder in a HAL airport Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

# A point that is made is that renegotiating the terms of the contract with BIAL will hurt PPP. I don’t think so. Business will come where money is to be made and India is gold rush territory. It will suffer if there is arbitrariness in the decision to keep HAL open. If there is compensation to BIAL, then rule of law applies.

# BIAL claims they will make huge losses and folks have bid at the airport expecting a monopoly. A public hearing on finances should help get a sense of the “loss”. In their original projections, they expected less than 7 million passengers this year. If it is proven BIAL will be financially devastated, then HAL airport should not be kept open.

Finally, I repeat it is not about connectivity and travel time to BIAL which will be a hassle in the short term. It is about a few other issues I have tabled. You may or may not agree.

I rest my case.

(V. Ravichandar is chairman and managing director, Feedback Consulting, a research based consulting firm)

Photograph: Monica Mascarenhas Prabhu / BIAL Communications

Also read: PPP is where public is a puppy of the private

5 + 1 questions for M/s Ramanathan, Misra & Co

I have seen the future in Hyderabad and it works

ALOK PRASANNA writes from Bangalore: I flew from Hyderabad to Bangalore the other day. It was like travelling through a time machine. From the future, into the past.

Having finished the semester, a friend and I took the afternoon flight out of Hyderabad to Bangalore. This gave us both our first opportunity to see the brand new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (it didn’t escape Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy’s fetish to name all new things after a dead Gandhi) in all its splendour.

Hell, it almost made the two-hour drive from our campus to the airport worth it.

For one, the baggage trolleys had brakes! The ordinary baggage trolley is about as controllable as Harbhajan Singh on a cricket field, and the looks one gets after inevitably running into a fellow passenger with a large pile of luggage would make Shanthakumaran Sreesanth on the pitch seem positively friendly.

Imagine our pleasant surprise when we found that we could actually walk smoothly with our large piles of luggage without having to play dodge cars at every turn.

We walked into the departure terminal and were struck dumb by the sight that greeted us. This wasn’t an airport, it was a freakin’ spaceport! Any moment we expected to hear the whoosh of ion thrusters as the Millennium Falcon lifted off with its cargo.

No, cancel that.

That scruffy smuggler, Han Solo and his tin can space-ship wouldn’t have been allowed within a light year of this gleaming, shiny piece of world class infrastructure. This was a spaceport fit for the Pushpaka Vimana, carrier of choice of the Gods.

We spent a full five minutes staring at the vast vaulting roofs, the gigantic pillars, the space age architecture, the empty queues, and the efficient counters before we realized that if we didn’t fill those empty lines and test the efficiency of the counters we would miss our flight.

We were still too awe-struck to notice that the plane was delayed and I had been stiffed for “excess baggage”.

It was then that we noticed something odd and unfamiliar in the terminal.

The absolute lack of noise.

Even the announcements were barely noticeable (which was not a good thing since we almost missed the plane because of that). But strangest of all, the usual hubbub of voices, the hallmark of any gathering of more than one Indian and defining characteristic of the chaos and the disorder of the ordinary airport was missing.

Even our fellow passengers seemed to be overawed by the building, and barely raised their voices over a whisper. Plus, the whole airport was air-conditioned and one was more than adequately protected from the flaying heat of Hyderabad in summer.

It was all too… un-Indian.

My friend, somewhat of the socialist bent, disliked it. She felt it was part of a large conspiracy to make Indians docile and obedient consumers by putting them in unfamiliar, foreign surroundings. This, she pointed to the airport, was a way to entice budget conscious Indians into surroundings that would make them forget their budget conscious Indianness and spend all their money on expensive foreign goods.

I was too busy downing the overpriced latte to respond.

We finally got on the plane; performed contortionists’ tricks to get into our seats, and invoked all known deities as the plane repeatedly flew into alarmingly large pockets of turbulence. This only added to the inter-state-bus feel of flying a low-cost airline.

The comparison was complete when we landed at the Kempe Gowda bus terminus. At least that is what the overcrowded HAL airport seemed like when we landed.

Noisy fans, creaky conveyor belts, litter-ridden bumpy floors, unmanageable baggage trolleys (but for my friend’s alert intervention, I would have run over a kid with my trolley), low artificial ceilings magnifying the marginal heat of Bangalore, and a crushing crowd gathered around the baggage claim reminded us where we were.

We were back in India.

Also read: Bangalore: world’s worst international airport?

PPP is where public is a puppet of the private

5+1 questions for M/s Ramesh Ramanathan, R.K. Misra & Co

An unmanned level-crossing in the Indian Ocean

While Bangalore ponders its “connectivity” with the new international airport at Devanahalli, SUDHEENDRA MURALIDHARA forwards a picture of the airport at Antananarivo in Madagascar, “probably the only airport in the world where a railway line runs through the runway.” The railway line connects the capital with Toamasina, the Indian Ocean island’s chief port, off the southeastern coast of Africa.

The old Safdarjung Airport in Delhi is also unique in that a railway line, a road, and a water body within a park, all run parallel to the runway from where Sanjay Gandhi took off, never to return.

Is the Mysore airport jinxed even before takeoff?

PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: The new Bangalore international airport has been receiving an obscene amount of attention from “visionaries” like Captain G.R. Gopinath, Ramesh Ramanathan and R.K. Misra, all of whom seem to be reacting at this late hour as if it was being built secretly for three years.

While they and other Rip Van Winkles in our midst (like Ramya Krishnamurthy) can keep debating if the old airport should be kept open, if the user development fee should be scrapped or reduced, if a city should have two airports, etc, here’s some fresh cud to chew: will the Devanahalli airport make the Mandakalli airport a bit of a no-go?

The airstrip in Mysore was built in 1948—take that, “visionaries”, 60 years ago! Its last burst of commercial activity was in the mid-1980s when Vayudoot ran a feeder service (the inaugural flight famously took to the skies without the man who inaugurated it, R.K. Narayan!). But it’s been in a state of disrepair since then.

Every so often, Mysore’s tourism potential (the palace attracted more foreign tourists last year than the Taj Mahal), its burgeoning status as an IT alternative, and a vast and growing diaspora have been bandied about as reasons why the city of pak, parks and palaces should not get its own full-fledged airport for commercial flights to take off and land.

The good news it is: The runway is being extended, a section of the Mysore-Nanjangud road is being readied to be realigned, and news reports indicate that the airport should be ready sooner rather than later.

The bad news is: is its immediate financial viability in the “foreseeable future” under a question mark because of the centre of air operations in Bangalore shifting to Devanahalli?

1) How many business travellers will go by air to Bangalore or vice-versa? A fast 30-minute air hop to and from Electronic City seemed an exciting prospect when the old airport was around. But to and from Devanahalli, which entails a minimum 30-minute check in, a 30-minute flight, a minimum 90-120 minute drive to and from the airport all adding upto a minimum three-hour ordeal? Will the time-strapped IT executives, whose perceived needs hastened the revival of Mysore airport, want to spend so much time when a road trip even on the existing highway could do the job for less? Even if and when the Bangalore-Mysore expressway becomes operational?

2) How many foreign tourists will want to come to Mysore or leave for Bangalore by air? Let’s face it. Mysore’s tourism potential is umbilically connected with that of Bangalore. Mysore is a stop after Bangalore, not on its own. At least not yet. Again, like in the case of the business travellers, we can wonder if backpackers are willing to make a journey towards Hyderabad on their way to Mysore, and pay a crazy user development fee on top of their ticket, especially with vastly improved and very convenient bus and train services? Especially with the palace on wheels, The Golden Chariot, on the anvil?

3) How many foreign travellers will want to use the air option? The likelihood of a direct foreign flight to and from Mysore is a good 5-10 years away, if not more. So, travellers to and from Mysore have to be content with stopovers and connecting flights. With the frequency of flights to and Mysore unlikely to be few and far between in the initial months, if not years, will it be attractive to foreign travellers? If a flight from Atlanta lands in Bangalore at 1 am, will a traveller want to wait till 7-10 am the next morning for a flight to Mysore, when he could easily have reached home by road?

Quite clearly, Mysoreans flying to Delhi and Bombay, or to London and New York, will find the connections offered by the new international airport convenient, especially because they will not have to make the long and tortuous road journey to Devanahalli. Nevertheless, is Mysore likely to provide the quantum of traffic that airlines will find attractive, for frequent flights, without expanding the transit time in Bangalore to ridiculous lengths?

From this distance, only three possibilities seem to hold out immediate hope for Mysore airport from day one. The first is, it could offer fast and easy connections to smaller cities within the State like Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad and Belgaum, providing of course that airlines find it viable to link these cities. The second is, it could help companies and industries to use air cargo to transport expensive equipment and finished products. The third is, it could help the rich and well-heeled like Venu Srinivasan of TVS to land their private jets and play a round of golf.

An airport is a long-term project, but it is difficult not to wonder if the location of the Devanahalli airport has altered Mandakalli airport’s paradigm even before the tarmac can be tarred.

5 + 1 questions for M/s Ramanathan, Misra & Co

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

Country cuisine crashlands in new airport

M’am, can I have one more of these lovely balls?

PPP is where the Public is a puppy of the Private

RAMYA KRISHNAMURTHY writes from Bangalore: As if to prove the old adage that the shortest route to a man’s heart is through his stomach, both the stories churumuri has put out on the Bangalore International Airport have been about food. Not surprising perhaps for a site named after a snack.

The first story, by Arun Padaki, on the need for restaurants and outlets in the new airport to dish out local cuisine like Mysore pak and jolada rotti; and the second, an anonymous piece, taking potshots at Kannada activists demanding that ragi mudde be served on planes taking off from the new hawai adda.

I suppose adult men have their little kinks and are free to exhibit them, but with less than two months to go before the first planes take off and land, surely there are more important issues of the mind, body and State than these admittedly important issues of the heart, about the new airport?

Some of the issues confronting the airport have been obvious for a while now:

1) With just weeks left, the approach road to the new airport is not ready and is not going to be. Eight years after it was decided to locate the new airport at Devanahalli, and four years after the concession agreement was signed and real work began on it, somebody forgot to build a clean, fast, well-lit road.

As Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha writes in today’s Mint, it would be fitting if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, when he comes to inaugurate the new airport, drives down to it instead of parachuting into it by helicopter like all VVIPs fearful of reality:

“… travel like the average passenger, toiling from Rajajinagar through West of Chord Road, battling the trucks across Peenya, getting stuck at the Yeshwantapur railway crossing, stop-starting across the 26km highway stretch sliced by 23 junctions with tractors and bicyclists and pedestrians, before bouncing over a 4km dust-track to finally get to the spanking new airport.”

How could three State governments—of S.M. Krishna, Dharam Singh and H.D. Kumaraswamy—of one of India’s most reform-minded States have ignored this small detail, when none of them could ever utter the letters IT without suffixing it with BT?

And how could the international airport authorities themselves? Are they already counting their cash so as to care about passenger amenities and comfort? Was N.R. Narayana Murthy oversensitive to quit as BIAL chief when H.D. Deve Gowda questioned his contributions, or just smart given the kind of bozos he was dealing with?

2) The second issue is of capacity. The single runway at the new airport was planned to service 10 million passengers per annum, a figure which consultants said would be reached by 2010. That figure was expected to go up to 11.3 million passengers per annum by 2015.

As Ramanathan writes, with Bangalore passenger traffic having already crossed 10 million in 2008,

“…the new airport will be running to full capacity the day it opens! Even if work on a second runway begins right away, it cannot get operational for another three years—during which time another 10 million passengers can be added to Bangalore’s demand, with no airport or runway to service them.”

However, both these issues pale in front of what I believe is the stunning arrogance of a project that is billed as India’s first “Public-Private Partnership” airport towards the greater common good—of the public not the private.

The first is BIAL’s insistence that the existing HAL Airport be closed as per the terms of the contract that no new airport shall be operational in a 150-kilometre radius. If this is truly a “Public-Private Partnership”, how difficult is it for the State, as an instrument of the Public, to alter the terms of the contract to allow the old airport to function till at least a second or third runway is built at the new airport?

More importantly, when even a nursery child knows that India needs more, not less, infrastructure, who are the netas and babus—and industry visionaries—who willingly allowed existing infrastructure to be shut down in a manner which is only designed to help the consortium to rake in millions while a City bleeds?

If BIAL refuses to allow the old airport to function, are Bangalore’s titans—Narayana Murthy downwards—who are always wailing about infrastructure, willing to go on, say, a hunger strike in the name of the City?

The second issue is of “user development fees” which the Bangalore International Airport proposes to levy from all passengers taking off from the airport. “User development fees” for an airport without a connecting road is an obvious irony, and BIAL wants to fleece Rs 675 from each embarking domestic passenger and Rs 955 from each international passenger. Even if 5 million passengers take off, that’s a sizeable number per annum.

And this when the new Hyderabad International Airport, which will open just a few days before Bangalore’s, has expressly decided not to charge any such “user development fees”. Appeals from the Civil Aviation Ministry to BIAL not to levy the user fees have fallen on deaf ears, quite unlike in Hyderabad where the developers, the desi GMR, has decided to acquiesce. Why?

Yes, local food and local jobs are valid issues, as I am sure the local language on the signboards will soon be, but surely we need to discuss how in a so-called “Public-Private Partnership” all the advantages seem to be so weighted that only the private partners seem set to have all the fun at the expense of the public partners?

As Ramesh Ramanathan writes aptly:

“Welcome to the most underdesigned, underconnected, woeful piece of infrastructure that is the face of new India to the world. Maybe we can harness a new source of renewable energy in India: “angry citizen energy”. It’s available in plenty, and being replenished every day by our governments.”

M’am, can I have one more of these lovely balls?

After having left no gully and geri on Mother Earth unconquered, Kannada chauvinism is now exploring the vastness of the skies above. Former Chamarajanagar MLA and Kannada chaluvaligar Vatal Nagaraj, who has formed a new front to save himself from extinction, has demanded that airlines serve ragi mudde, ragi kadubu, huruli sambar, and upittu, along with Kannada newspapers, to passengers besides the standard airline menu of bread, tea and soft drinks.

This is a significant step up from churumuri’s own demand for outlets serving local cuisine at the soon-to-be-opened Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli. Staging a black flag demonstration at the airport yesterday, Nagaraj said food that reflects the “local food culture” should be served by airlines, and threatened to serve ragi mudde meals at the new airport on the day of its inauguration.

Whether Nagaraj and gang want ragi mudde to be served on domestic or international flights, we do not know. Whether they want it only in Karnataka airspace, we do not know. Whether they want Taj and Ambassador sky chefs to make them or local Kannada caterers, we do not know. Whether they would like Vijay Mallya and Captain G.R. Gopinath to be caught eating them to prove their Kannadiganess, we do not know.

We do not know, but we can guess.

(churumuri will be failing in its duties if it does not acknowledge the presence of one G. Mudde Gowda in the protest.)

Photograph: courtesy Karnatakarecipes.blogspot.com

Also read: Country cuisine crashlands in new airport

Country cuisine crashlands in new airport

ARUN PADAKI writes: Sometime back, the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) announced a tie-up with famed dining outlets operating at many international airports the world over, and a few Indian new-age restaurants that sell burgers, pizzas, cappuccinos and choco-chip with sundaes on vanilla. That’s one too many to satiate any appetite.

As we all know, it is in Karnataka where the famous masala dosa originated. And, again, as we all know, it is on the hills of Karnataka in Coorg and Chickmagalur that the best coffee beans in this part of the world are grown, from which the most aromatic filter kaapi of South India is brewed.

Ironically, neither of these two and a host of other local delicacies seemingly have any place in the food courts at the upcoming international airport.

All the eateries, it seems, have been set up or are going to be set up with a Westerner’s (or a “globalised” Indian’s) palate in mind.

Well, we cannot expect to feast on a dosa or a crisp vada at Warsaw airport, but certainly, at Bangalore we should not be deprived of having jolada rotti with yengai or a simple South Indian thali?

Can one imagine Milan airport without pizzas or Johannesburg airport without biltong? No way!

BIAL should provide an outlet, of course airport-class, which sells the best of Karnataka cuisines from Udupi, Mysore, Karwar, Belgaum or Dharwad. I have a case for our own Nandini brand of milk products and savouries as well.

These are great local success stories and should be showcased at all levels. The best way to cherish the memories or savour the first taste of Karnataka can’t be without a piece of Mysore pak melting in the mouth or Belgaum-kundha at the new Bangalore International Airport. Yes, at the new Bangalore International airport!

Bidding adieu or according a warm welcome could not be any better with namma goodies. Even for the Westerner and the globalised Indian.

Cross-posted on kosambari

BANGALORE: World’s Worst International Airport?

A. MADHAVAN writes: I have read recent complaints about the Bangalore International Airport, but did not believe how bad it was until I went through it.

Trundling in our laden trolley through a narrow dirt path beside construction works, a uniformed porter led my wife and me into the international terminal.

Through a miasma of gritty dust and smelly smoke we saw two officials perched on a low ledge in the cavernous hall. They curtly asked us to go to the domestic terminal and sit on our trolley till the counters opened.

We had been vastly relieved to reach the airport from Mysore by 7.30 p.m. on April 12, with Bangalore still eerie from the destructive spree by the ‘mourners’ for Raj Kumar. Our Indian Airlines flight was scheduled for just past midnight.

In the domestic hall we found a milling crowd and a companion cloud of mosquitoes.

We grabbed two just-vacated seats and stayed put till 9 p.m. Our porter had gone, promising to return and see us into the departure lounge, even declining my proffered tip. He did not return.

We got another man to help us carry our luggage to the departure area upstairs. We joined a winding queue of trolleys and outward bound passengers.

One family had despaired of getting a taxi to the airport and had been saved by calling up an obliging friend to give them a lift. The security check for the luggage x-ray started half-an-hour late. There was no announcement and no apology by ‘Indian’ (which has shed ‘Airlines’ in its name).

Some passengers muscled in ahead, by prior ‘arrangement’ with the staff.

The check-in was another test of patience. The computer-savvy assistants were inexplicably slow to complete procedures, and push in the boxes with the right labels, slower than in any previous airport where I have checked in, slower than in the pre-computer era.

Then came the scramble for filling up the emigration forms and passport checks. Though relatively efficient, our government’s official surprisingly asked a young Indian to show his letter of invitation from abroad before letting him through, as if India should be solicitous on behalf of the foreign country which had issued a visa to him.

Perhaps there was an element of bureaucratic one-up-man-ship in it.

The next ordeal was the queue, a queue winding four lengths, to the security check for the hand baggage and frisking. One of the x-ray machines was out of order. So the wait was that much longer.

When we got through to the departure lounge, we had spent a good two hours on our feet.

Bangalore International must be among the worst in terms of facilities, airline ground-staff service and self-awareness of what it needs to do. It is no consolation to passengers going in or out to hear that the city is building a brand new airport.

It is not the grand buildings and the glittering shops with consumer goodies at fancy prices that count so much as the awareness of travellers’ needs by the administrators and the airlines that can make a real difference for the passenger, who, after all, has to pay a sizeable tax on the ticket to Abroad.

*

Have more horror tales about Bangalore “International” Airpor? Drop a comment.