The proposed airport city at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru will include three business parks which will be built over 40 acres, according to officials at the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the operator of KIA. The city complex is planned as part of the airport's Phase 2 expansion project and is currently awaiting regulatory approvals.
The entire project will be spread out over 530 acres and will have a mall, a retail dining entertainment village, live entertainment centre, luxury and business hotels, serviced apartments and 10-acre multi-level car parking facilities. The city is proposed to be located near terminal 1 of the airport, Times of India reported.
A rail link from central Bengaluru is also proposed to the airport city. The plan to build a hub of commercial establishments near the airport has been in the pipeline for over 10 years.
On its website, KIA states that the proposed city will have a business district which will house the headquarters of corporations. "This is envisaged as a high density development integrated with green building and energy-efficiency concept. The development is envisaged as a semi enclosed areas comprising walkways with plazas on ground connecting pedestrian walkway into the Central area. The development is also envisaged to have a roof canopy with continuous membrane, energy conservation, utilise photovoltaic panels to supplement electricity and thus reduce energy consumption", KIA states.
The city will be built along the lines of Aero City in New Delhi which has several high-end commercial establishments including around 2,000 hotels.
Earlier this month, the KIA became the first airport in the country to operate two parallel runways that enable simultaneous take-offs. A delay in regulatory paperwork led to airport officials pushing the timeline on the operations of the runway from the scheduled start in October.