Shivamogga Airport, officially renamed as Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Airport , is a

domestic airport A domestic airport is an airport that handles only flights within the same country. Domestic airports do not have customs and immigration facilities and so cannot handle flights to or from a foreign airport. These airports often have short r ...

serving the city of

Shimoga Shimoga, officially Shivamogga, is a city and the district headquarters of Shimoga district in the Karnataka state of India. The city lies on the banks of the Tunga River. Being the gateway for the hilly region of the Western Ghats, the city ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is located at Sogane, from Shimoga and from Bhadravathi. The airport was to be built under

Public–Private Partnership A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sectors, private sector institutions.Hodge, G. A and Greve, C. (2007), Public–Private Partnerships: An International Performance Revie ...

(PPP) with the

Government of Karnataka The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as GoK or GoKA, formerly known as Government of Mysore (1956–1974), is a democratically elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka ...

. However, due to delays in project execution, the contract was terminated in January 2015. On 15 June 2020, the

Chief Minister of Karnataka The Chief minister (India), chief minister of Karnataka is the Head of government, chief executive officer of the Government of Karnataka, government of the Indian state of Karnataka. As per the Constitution of India, the governor of Karnatak ...

B. S. Yediyurappa Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa (born 27 February 1943), often referred to by his initials BSY, is an Indian politician. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he has served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka, chief minister of ...

, laid the

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

to start the construction of the airport at a cost of ₹ 4.5 billion. The airport is to be constructed in two phases, out of which the first phase was inaugurated on 27 February 2023 by

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

. It is named after

Kuvempu Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa (29 December 1904 – 11 November 1994), popularly known by his pen name Kuvempu, was an Indian poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He is widely regarded as the greatest Kannada poet of the 20th century. He wa ...

, who is regarded as the greatest Kannada poet of the 20th century.

History

A team of experts from

Airports Authority of India The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (India), Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and managing civi ...

(AAI) visited the two identified suitable sites, at Sogane near

and Nagarabavi near Ayanur on 4 April 2006. Of the two sites inspected by the AAI team, the one at Sogane was found most suitable, due to its wind direction and velocity conditions. The only concern was that the land was uneven and needed to be levelled. The other site near Ayanur was found inadequate in width for the runway of the proposed airport. Nineteen companies had shown interest in developing the airport when the Government had called for an Expression of Interest (EoI) to develop airports in

Kalaburagi Kalaburagi, formerly known as Gulbarga, is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka, It is headquarters of eponymous Kalaburagi district and Kalaburagi division, Kalaburagi city is governed by a Municipal Corporation, It is called a Sufi ci ...

Bijapur Bijapur (officially Vijayapura) is the district headquarters of Bijapur district of the Karnataka state of India. It is also the headquarters for Bijapur Taluk. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural importa ...

and Shimoga. The project was awarded to a consortium of Maytas Infra Ltd.), NCC Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. (NCC) and VIE India Project Development and Holding, on 15 November 2007, on a

BOT Bot or BOT may refer to: Sciences Computing and technology * Chatbot, a computer program that converses in natural language * Internet bot, a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet **Spambot, an internet bot ...

basis. Concession period was to be 30 years, to be extended for a further period of 30 years by Mutual Agreement. Shimoga Airport Developers Pvt Ltd (SADPL), a

Special Purpose Company A special-purpose entity (SPE), also called a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) or a financial vehicle corporation (FVC), is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited partnership) created to fulfill narrow, speci ...

, was established to sign the Project Development Agreement (PDA) with the Infrastructure Development Department (IDD) of the Government of Karnataka. The Shareholding pattern of Maytas Infra, NCC and VIE was 37%, 37% and 26% respectively in SADPL. The project development agreement was signed on 2 April 2008. The foundation stone for the Phase I of construction was laid by former

, B. S. Yeddyurappa, on 20 June 2008. Due to a change in the project shareholding ratio, a Supplementary Development Agreement was signed on 21 December 2010. Bengaluru-based company, Regional Airport-Holdings International Limited (RAHI), acquired 22% in the project and overall management and financial control. In January 2015, the government decided to annul the land allotment for the airport because of “indifference and infighting” among the promoters. As no construction work had begun at the Shimoga airport, the government planned to re-tender the project. On 15 June 2020, Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa relaunched the long pending project. The airport will be built at a cost of ₹ 2.2 billion in about 662.38 acres land, initiated earlier at Sogane. It will be built as a part of the

UDAN ''Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik'' (Hindi for "Let the common citizens of the country fly"), known by its acronym ''UDAN-RCS'' ('Udan' is Hindi for "flight") is a regional airport development program of the Government of India and part of the Regio ...

scheme. The airport was completed and inaugurated by

on 27 February 2023, with regular flight operations starting from 31 August 2023 to

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

operated by

IndiGo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

Land acquisition and lease

The government had acquired 662.38 acres of land, and 58.3 million released for acquisition and development. Compensation for farmers given, for private land, was 600,000 for an acre of dry land and 700,000 for an acre of wetland, and for farmers using government land 200,000 per acre. About 130 acres of private land and 530 acres of government land were acquired for the project. Families living in the affected area were provided monetary compensation and alternate housing. The Land Lease Deed signed on 21 December 2010 commits the lessee to a rent of 20,232 per acre annually to the GoK (13.4 million). The lease rent will increase by 10% every three years during the lease period.

Construction

Work on Phase I of the construction started in April 2011.Work on Phase I of the construction
/ref> However, out of the proposed 3,200 metre runway, only the work of levelling a 0.5-km stretch with boulders and concrete mixture was completed. After this, differences cropped up between the partners of the contractor and all work on the project was stopped. On 15 June 2020, the

B. S. Yeddyurappa relaunched the airport project. The airport is being built around a cost of ₹ 4.49 billion, in about 662 acres of land area. It will be built as a part of the

scheme. The airport will have the longest runway in the state, of 3,200 metres, after

Kempegowda International Airport Kempegowda International Airport is an international airport serving Bengaluru, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Spread over , it is located about north of the city near the suburb of Devanahalli. It is owned and operated by ...

. It will be an airport of international standards, where widebody aircraft can land. The airport is designed to operate

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

and

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

type aircraft, and can handle about 350 peak hour passengers. The project will be taken up in two phases. It was expected to be completed by 2022, but it is now completed and was inaugurated on 27 February 2023.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links