MANGALURU: Eager to ensure that passengers enjoy a comfortable ride from the proposed new terminal at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) in Karnataka to the state highway SH-66A, which connects the coastal city with Bajpe, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has requested the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) to construct a new road.
The existing road from the proposed new terminal to the highway makes for a tortuous ride with five hairpin curves.
The road, once completed, will be one kilometre long.
The plan is to upgrade the existing road on the western end of the airport to a six-lane street, thereby turning it into the primary route for entry or exit to the western terminal.
There are also plans to widen the existing road to the western terminal to a four-lane road so as to reduce hassles for cargo traffic.
According to the minutes of the 83rd meeting of the Union ministry of environment and forests’ Expert Appraisal Committee-Infrastructure-2 held in March, Mangaluru International Airport Ltd, along with Vimta Labs Ltd, gave a presentation to the panel highlighting the key parameters of the project.
Upgrading the road, they said, would enhance the experience of the passengers.
The other proposals include strengthening SH-66A for a length of up to 1.1km, the construction of a new four-lane road from the road at Sri Devi College of Pharmacy to the Western Side Terminal, the total length of which is estimated to be 0.9km.
At the eastern end of the terminal, there is a proposal to have two roads – the existing road connecting the eastern end with Mangaluru, and another that will connect the western and eastern ends of the airport via the elevated road.
The stakeholders are also contemplating constructing a road that will directly connect to the eastern wing of the airport from the western side.
Two multi-level car parking facilities, rainwater harvesting system that can store up to 46 million litres a day are the other projects that are in the pipeline.
