Team to survey land for Mysuru Airport runway extension

Mysuru: The much-awaited process for the acquisition of 280 acres of land needed for extension of the runway of Mysuru airport, finally took off on Saturday with formation of a survey team to conduct a final survey of the land.

August 15 has been fixed as the deadline for completion of the survey. Officials of Airport Authority of India(AAI) have even come up with a master plan for extension of the runway from 1740 metres to 2750 metres at an estimated cost of Rs 700 crores.

The work is likely to begin from January and will be completed in two years according to Mysuru Kodagu MP Mr Pratap Simha.

He said, "there will be better connectivity to Mysuru in the next two years with expansion of the airport and completion of the ten-lane road between Bengaluru and Mysuru which will begin in September. Also with the Union government’s approval of the new satellite railway terminal at Naganahalli in Mysuru district, new train services can be added and it will ease passenger traffic at Mysuru railway station. With better connectivity Mysuru will become an alternative to Bengaluru which is saturated with industries" he said.

Mr Pratap Simha was speaking to mediapersons after participating in a meeting of the Airport Advisory Committee at Mysuru aiport on Saturday. Higher education minister Mr G.T. Devegowda who was present, said, “With the final survey and earmarking of 280 acres needed for the extension of the runway, rates will be fixed for the land. The cost of each acre ranges from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore. With funds from the Infrastructure department, KIADB will acquire land from farmers. I will get all clearances needed for the project from the state and Mr Pratap Simha will get approvals from the Centre,” he said.

Meanwhile tourism stake holders and industrialists said, “We need flights which can land in the night and depart early morning. We need flights connecting Cochin Mysuru and Goa.”