Bangalore: The much-delayed Bangalore international airport project would be given final clearance at the State Cabinet meeting on December 21 and work on it would begin in the second week of January, Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said today (Dec 14, 2004).

After a meeting with representatives of the members of the Siemens-led consortium, Singh told reporters in Bangalore that "certain technical issues" had to be discussed and officials had been asked to go into the details and apprise him and Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. At its meeting on Saturday (Dec 11, 2004), the Karnataka Cabinet gave "in principle approval" for the Rs 1,334 crore project which has been bogged down by delays bringing the Congress-JD-S (Janata Dal-Secular) coalition Government under attack, particularly from the IT sector, for not giving required clearances speedily.

Seeking to steer clear of the accusations about delay and reported differences with the coalition partner JD-S, Singh said, "When you take up a big project, hiccups will be there." But, he declared, "Come what may, we will have an international airport".

The airport project, being built by the consortium comprising Siemens, L and T and Zurich Airport Authority was originally estimated to cost Rs 1150 crore in 2001 which is now revised to Rs 1334 crore.

Singh said the development cost had increased from Rs 15 crore to Rs 63.60 crore and the legal fee from Rs 7 crore to Rs 17 crore for the project which required 4,000 acres with the land to be given at concessional cost by the State, besides providing State support of Rs 350 crore.