Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has agreed to give about 300 acres of land for building a new airport in Mysuru, Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Friday.
"Met @CMofKarnataka and discussed issues related to aviation. He agreed to give about 300 acres of land for a new airport," tweeted Prabhu after a day-long visit to the city, located about 150 km from Bengaluru.
Since 2010, the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been operating a smaller airport on the city's southern outskirts, with a terminal, apron, air traffic control tower and a runaway.
"The additional land will enable us to build a full-fledged airport at Mysuru, as it has many tourist attractions and is well located at an equidistance from mini-cities in the region," said Prabhu on the occasion.
Prabhu was in the state's cultural capital to watch the grand finale of the world famous Mysuru Dasara, besides a victory parade from the royal palace.
Prabhu assured Kumaraswamy of working together for the Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) airport as part of the Central government's mission to provide air connectivity to all parts of remote India under the Udaan project. Kalaburagi is about 650km northwest of Bengaluru.
Confirming the meeting between Prabhu and Kumaraswamy at Mysuru, the Chief Minister's Office shared with the media a picture of the two with two other state ministers.
— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) October 19, 2018
"We shall fulfil our PM Shri @narendramodi ji's Mission," said Suresh Prabhu in another tweet.
As Prabhu is also the Minister for Trade and Commerce, he urged the Chief Minister to set up a task force to address the huge problem caused to coffee growers by the flash floods in Kodagu in the state's southwest region in mid-August.
"We had an excellent discussion to jointly work to make Indian coffee a global brand," tweeted Prabhu.