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'Infosys chief's resignation won't affect airport'
by Sushil Pareek

     Mumbai: Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Saturday termed the resignation of Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy from the chairmanship of the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BAIL) as an internal affair of the Karnataka Government and the Union Government had no role to play in this matter. Patel, however, assured that the Rs 1,300 crore (288 million dollar) international airport at Devanahalli would be developed in time and the government would go ahead with the construction in spite of resignations of bigwigs such as Murthy. "The international airport will be completed on time. I have got his resignation, but he has not talked to me. It is an internal matter between him and the government. As far as the Indian Government is concerned the airport will be built on time," Patel told reporters at a seminar on civil aviation in Mumbai.

     The Civil Aviation Minister maintained that he had no talk with Murthy and does not know the reason behind his resignation. He termed it as an internal affair and said it should be sorted out between airport authorities and Karnataka Government. Murthy had resigned on Thursday from the chairmanship of BAIL, the nodal agency for Devanahalli airport, citing criticism levelled by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda against him for his contribution to the airport.

     The BIAL project was first conceived in 1991 and is currently being supervised by a promoters Siemens-Zurich Airport-L&T consortium, the Airports Authority of India and the Karnataka State Investment and Industrial Development Corporation. The international airport is coming up on a 4050 acre plot at Devanahalli, about 30 kilometres from Bangalore. It is expected to have an annual passenger handling capacity of 4.5 million and will create an additional 1,000 jobs per million passengers, besides cargo handling capacity of 1.4 lakh tonnes per year. The first phase of the project is due to be completed in June 2007. Apart from Murthy, the other members of the BIAL board were Albert Brunner, CEO, the Chief Secretary of Karnataka and B.K. Das, Infrastructure Secretary The prominent features of the project include domestic arrival at the ground floor, a swing gate walk on the second floor for international arrivals, domestic and international departure on the first floor and baggage handling and claim on the ground floor.
-Oct 22,  2005

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