Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa inaugurates Kalaburagi airport

Karnataka CM Yediyurappa inaugurated Kalaburagi airport. Operations commenced this afternoon with chief minister Yediyurappa taking the Star Air direct flight from Bengaluru

Kalaburagi: Chief minister BS Yediyurappa inaugurated the Kalaburagi airport on Friday afternoon. Deputy chief minister Govind Karjol, heavy and medium industries minister Jagadish Shettar, home minister Basavaraj Bommai, animal husbandry minister Prabhu Chauhan took part in the inaugural function.

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The 3.25 km runway laid at Kalaburagi airport is the second-longest runway in the state after the runway at KIA.

The Chief minister arrived from Bengaluru by Star Air to Kalaburagi and the first flight landed safely at the new airport around 1:45pm.

“I had laid the foundation stone back in 2008. Due to unavoidable circumstances, PM Modi could not be present for the inauguration today. A new chapter of development has begun with the inauguration of Kalaburagi airport. The runway is the second longest, after the Bengaluru runway. I will everything in my stride to develop Kalaburagi and will allocate funds for the development of the state. I have already released the first instalment to 2,000 farmers while the second will be released in December”, said chief minister Yediyurappa. 

During his first stint as chief minister, Yediyurappa had laid the foundation stone for building the airport on June 14, 2018. A total of 567 acres of farmland was acquired for the project.

It was earlier decided that the airport be built on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model and the state government had entered into an agreement with Maytas Infra for 30 years. However, the agreement was cancelled in 2015 due to various reasons.

The public works department took up the construction work in 2016 with technical guidance from RITES India and completed the task at a cost of Rs 175 crore.

Trial runs were held on August 26, 2018.