It was too good an opportunity to pass up RFL's run on Sunday, Jan 13th at the new Bangalore International Airport that's coming up in Devanahalli. Afterall, how often will you get an opportunity to brag to your fellow passenger before takeoff and landing that you've actually run where the aircraft you are in is at that moment:)? I had to leave home by 4:15 am to catch the bus from Cubbon Park at 5:00 am and reaching the airport in time for an early start.
Our run was on the runway that was 4 kms long; we started along the taxiway, going to one end of the runway and running all the way to the other end before turning back on to the taxiway and returning to the starting point, making it an 8 km loop. It was chill and slightly foggy when we started at 7 am; the runway runs east-west; it was awesome to see the suns rays on the mountain on our right as we ran due west. The greenery around the runway was very pleasant. I can definitely tell you that the takeoff and landing in the new airport will be a very nice experience. Nice doesn't mean it will come anywhere close to the breathtaking beauty of SFO; but it will be nice and probably the best in India. I completed one full loop and did a smaller 2nd loop totalling about 15 kms in 110 minutes. It was good to have the knee behave reasonably well and not trouble me like it did during the Ultra.
Of course, this blog wouldn't be complete without my impressions of the new airport. We were given a tour of the new terminal by Marcel Hungerbuhler (the COO of the project, a runner himself) and his staff. The single terminal building has 9 aero bridges with the departure on the left and arrival on the right; 7 baggage carousels; lots of shopping & dining options. Everything we saw was state of the art. The airport can handle ~10 lakh passengers per month, a number that was doubled from the 5 lakh passengers at the beginning of the project without compromising the launch date. The financial stakeholders in the BIAL project are Siemens (Germany & India), L&T India, Zurich Airport, Karnataka Government and Airport Authority of India. The technology stakeholders are largely L&T and Siemens. With 77 days to go, I am reasonably confident that the terminal will get completed in time. Otherwise, Marcel had better not be running with us today :). Seriously, during the tour, we were given to understand that the Zurich airport looked in far worse shape 30 days before the opening than does BIAL now. What is definitely troubling is that there is still ~5km of kachcha road from NH7 to the airport that needs to be fixed; the NH7 - Airport road interchange is looking far from complete; there are couple of overpasses being built on NH7 that will take time to complete. You can read up lot more on BIAL from the following link - http://www.bialairport.com/
How long it is going to take to reach the new airport? Well, from the outermost point in the city, the Hebbal flyover, it will take about 30 - 40 minutes. You need figure the time to take to get there from where you live in Bangalore - for us, living in the eastern end of Bangalore, it will take 40 - 60 minutes by the Outer Ring Road. So, anywhere from 1:15 minutes to 2 hours for us. A far cry from the the 30 minute luxury we enjoy today. Is the new airport going to worth the additional commute? I am impressed enough to give it a shot in Q2 for my US trip - or then again, it could be to exercise my bragging rights!
Run Statistics
~15 kms in 110 minutes at 8.2 km/hr.
Our run was on the runway that was 4 kms long; we started along the taxiway, going to one end of the runway and running all the way to the other end before turning back on to the taxiway and returning to the starting point, making it an 8 km loop. It was chill and slightly foggy when we started at 7 am; the runway runs east-west; it was awesome to see the suns rays on the mountain on our right as we ran due west. The greenery around the runway was very pleasant. I can definitely tell you that the takeoff and landing in the new airport will be a very nice experience. Nice doesn't mean it will come anywhere close to the breathtaking beauty of SFO; but it will be nice and probably the best in India. I completed one full loop and did a smaller 2nd loop totalling about 15 kms in 110 minutes. It was good to have the knee behave reasonably well and not trouble me like it did during the Ultra.
Of course, this blog wouldn't be complete without my impressions of the new airport. We were given a tour of the new terminal by Marcel Hungerbuhler (the COO of the project, a runner himself) and his staff. The single terminal building has 9 aero bridges with the departure on the left and arrival on the right; 7 baggage carousels; lots of shopping & dining options. Everything we saw was state of the art. The airport can handle ~10 lakh passengers per month, a number that was doubled from the 5 lakh passengers at the beginning of the project without compromising the launch date. The financial stakeholders in the BIAL project are Siemens (Germany & India), L&T India, Zurich Airport, Karnataka Government and Airport Authority of India. The technology stakeholders are largely L&T and Siemens. With 77 days to go, I am reasonably confident that the terminal will get completed in time. Otherwise, Marcel had better not be running with us today :). Seriously, during the tour, we were given to understand that the Zurich airport looked in far worse shape 30 days before the opening than does BIAL now. What is definitely troubling is that there is still ~5km of kachcha road from NH7 to the airport that needs to be fixed; the NH7 - Airport road interchange is looking far from complete; there are couple of overpasses being built on NH7 that will take time to complete. You can read up lot more on BIAL from the following link - http://www.bialairport.com/
How long it is going to take to reach the new airport? Well, from the outermost point in the city, the Hebbal flyover, it will take about 30 - 40 minutes. You need figure the time to take to get there from where you live in Bangalore - for us, living in the eastern end of Bangalore, it will take 40 - 60 minutes by the Outer Ring Road. So, anywhere from 1:15 minutes to 2 hours for us. A far cry from the the 30 minute luxury we enjoy today. Is the new airport going to worth the additional commute? I am impressed enough to give it a shot in Q2 for my US trip - or then again, it could be to exercise my bragging rights!
Run Statistics
~15 kms in 110 minutes at 8.2 km/hr.
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