Talks are on with private players including Indigo and Star Air to launch new services to Mysuru which has seen a gradual shrinking of flights despite passenger traffic.
Mysuru MP Pratap Simmha said that there was demand for Goa, Kochi and other places but most players in the airline industry cite lack of ATR planes – which are 72 seater planes capable of short haul flight – which Mysuru airport can handle due to its short runway.
At present Mysuru is connected only to Chennai and Hyderabad while the flights to Kochi, Goa, Bengaluru, Belagavi, Mangaluru have been withdrawn by the service providers over a period of time.
The Indigo has promised to introduce a few services once it acquires new planes which was under process, said Mr. Simmha. The flight to Goa used to have 100 per cent occupancy but the problem was with the flight operators who had to send the plane for maintenance besides rejigging their route, he added.
The only solution to tide over this uncertainty was to extend the runway for which the Mysuru airport expansion plan was on track though there was delay in the land acquisition process, said Mr. Simmha. The airport expansion has been cleared by the cabinet and a budgetary allocation of ₹319 crore has also been made of which ₹175 crore has also been released. Out of it Rs.154 crore has also been disbursed in lieu of land acquisition and the work is underway for completing the process, he added.
“Despite our best efforts the land acquisition is a tedious process and is taking time though our objective was to have the ground breaking ceremony for the second phase of the airport expansion at the earliest,” he said.
At present 160 acres of land has already been acquired and an additional 38 acres of acquisition was in the process. The entire project requires 240 acres of land but Mr. Simmha said that the remaining swathe of land belonged to the government. The runway of the airport at present is 1740 meters long and this enables only short-haul flights to land and take off. Once the runway is extended to 2.75 km it will enable the operations of Boeing and Airbus planes, said Mr. Simmha.
The MP said once the land acquisition is complete and the work commences, the diversion of the existing highway connecting Mysuru and Nanjangud will also commence. The Airport Authority of India has committed to release ₹534 crore for the works and an additional expenditure over and above it, will be borne by the National Highways Authority of India, Mr. Simmha added.
Krishnaraja MLA T.S. Srivatsa, former mayor Shivakumar and others were present.
