A job well done...

The following is a letter I sent to our newspaper when I could no longer control my anger at a very political issue that is going on. I am sure they will not publish it - so just to have the pleasure of telling them I've posted it on the net, I am leaving it here. Good heavens, who thought I'd go political;-)....

I am writing this to express my unspeakable irritation at the farce that I see unfolding before me regarding the new Bangalore airport. As a concerned citizen, I cannot believe that the government would so publicly renege on its commitment. The airport is ready and it’s ready on time. I live in Jakkur and have personally watched with growing pride at the way the work has progressed these last three years. The roads from the Hebbal flyover to Devanahalli are in good shape. Brunner has delivered a perfectly executed finished product. And the government as well as assorted politicians and even key business names have now woken up and protest that the airport is too far for their convenience.

All us North Bangalore residents have been so used to the step motherly treatment of our needs that we commuted to the business areas in increasingly chaotic traffic without a murmur. A trip to the airport would take us nearly two hours but who cares about that. Now that the other people have to make this same trip, it rankles. But where were all these people when the airport project was announced so many years ago? Didn’t they know what it meant then? The BIAL completed its task to perfection – connectivity was not their job. It was the job of the government which was apparently in hibernation or in a drunken stupor all this time since only now it seems to have woken up to the glaring fact that a world class international airport in Bangalore also need roads to get there.

I fully agree that traveling to the new airport will not be easy but keeping the existing HAL airport which was a makeshift arrangement right from the beginning, is not going to solve the problem of connectivity. The HAL airport is a disgrace – there’s not adequate room for anything – not for parking, not for the arriving passengers. It is a cowshed in comparison to the new facility and instead of lauding all the efforts that went into it, people are acting like it’s a curse!

Let the government work immediately to provide a dedicated road system from the city to the new airport. Let them pay a penalty for going back on their word, for not doing anything, for bringing in loss to the airport authorities. I am fully confident that no foreign company will now take part in an infrastructure development project in Karnataka. Why, even today’s front page screamed ‘New Airport inauguration postponed’ – do you know why? – I don’t and neither does the article – it just says that some equipment is not installed in the ATC – yeah, right. Anything to throw dirt on a flawless piece of work – anything to show BIAL in a bad light – not even bare details of the kind of system missing in the ATC (which somehow still managed to conduct successful flight tests) – irresponsible reporting supporting an even more irresponsible government. Can we just give the new airport a chance? Its location cannot be an issue – all major cities have airports that are situated away from the business districts. Its facilities cannot be an issue. Only getting there is – let’s get the government to do its job instead of penalizing people for having done theirs too well.