Karnataka cabinet clears Rs 193 crore funding to greenfield airport at Hassan

The State Cabinet on Monday cleared Rs 193 crore in funding support to the greenfield domestic passenger airport project at Hassan, about 200 km from Bengaluru.

Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, who had represented the constituency in the Lok Sabha for long, had been pursuing the project, but there had not been much progress.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, however, accepted the request from the people's representatives of Hassan, and agreed to implement it from the state government.

The Cabinet cleared the funding for infrastructure such as the runway, passenger terminal, and technical structure, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai told the media, after the Cabinet meeting.

Hassan has a good highway and rail network, and is also close to a major seaport. Airport was the only infrastructure the district was lacking.

TDR CERTIFICATE
The Cabinet decided to amend the law and other regulations to speed up issuing of transferable development rights (TDR) certificates to landowners who have surrendered their plots for state's public projects like metro or ring road. Under the present system, the agency implementing the project after acquiring the plot and deciding on the TDR share, would forward the same to the BDA. The planning authorities at BDA would do a survey again before issuing the TDR.

"This led to a lot of delay and harassment to people who have surrendered their plot. On occasions, interested people would also approach BDA officials for a favourable share. Sticking to just one survey report would end a lot of confusion as well as trouble to people," Bommai said.