Thursday, January 20 2005 19:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Karnataka Government today (Jan 20, 2005) signed the much awaited Land Lease and State Support Agreements with the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) paving way for financial closure and setting stage for commencement of work by March.

With the inking of these two vital agreements, the State has cleared the way for the project, jinxed for about 14 years, to take off and put the ball in the BIAL court to commence the work.

Under the land lease agreement, Karnataka would transfer about 4,000 of acres of land at Devanahally to BIAL and the State support agreement entails Rs 350 crore funding.

Karnataka State Industrial Investment Development Corporation (KSIID) Managing Director, I M Vittal Murthy, and Infrastructure Development Department Principal Secretary Vinay Kumar signed the agreements on behalf of the State and BIAL chief Albert Bruner on behalf of the stake holders of this first ever private sector green field project in Bangalore.

The signing event was witnessed by Chief Minister N Dharam Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Industries Minister P G R Sindhia, Cooperation Minister R V Deshpande and representatives of L & T, Zurich airport and BIAL board of directors.

Siddaramaiah and Sindhia announced that the BIAL would complete the financial closure with ICICI bank in about twenty days and the work was expected to commence on the first phase of the project by this march.

The airport would be ready for operations in 33 months.