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The Karnataka High Court has pulled up the government for not providing connectivity to the new Bangalore airport, reports CNBC-TV18. The Court has ask the Centre to continue talks to keep the old Bangalore airport open for smaller aircrafts.It was the vacation bench that took up this hearing primarily because the new airport was slated to open today. They heard the case over two days. It was a marathon session and they took more than 10 hours to hear both sides of the disagreement. But at the end, they said they are not going to leave behind any interim order that would stay the opening of BIAL principally because of two issues: there wasn’t conclusive enough evidence about the labors of the state government in providing connectivity. This was the main contention of the petitioners that there was some connectivity, But there was trouble and the Court admitted that.One of the things that they have said is that the union government should seriously renegotiate the conditions of the contract. If according to the renegotiation they do want HAL to stay open, they must open HAL once again and that must be done right away after the discussions takes place.For all practical purpose, for anyone who is flying into or out of Bangalore, the old airport is shut. But Airports power of India is also working on a study to determine what the kind of transfer flow will be at the new airfield, But until then, for the 12 weeks that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has necessary, HAL will definitely stay close.

fuel and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought a cut in civilization duties on import of basic and reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel.The crude prices skyrocketed to $135 a barrel on Thursday and the Indian crude basket touched a evidence $125.Mr. Deora sought readjustment of duties to offset some of the collision of the high global prices and provide a cushion to the oil marketing companies (OMCs) against financial ruin on account of under-recoveries, thanks to subsidised sale of petroleum products in trade.

The get-together came on the heels of a assembly Mr. Deora had with the heads of the OMCs in the morning. “The heads of the OMCs informed me that they had not imposed any kind of freeze on release of new LPG relatives, nor was any quota set for LPG cylinders for consumers,” the Minister said. Asked what he discuss with the Prime Minister, Mr. Deora said he apprised Dr. Singh of the situation caused by the continued volatility in crude prices.Dr. Singh also told Mr. Deora that he had asked his Principal Secretary to call together a meeting of the money and Petroleum Secretaries to narrow down the differences.

Official source said the Petroleum Ministry had sought zero per cent civilization duty on crude against the present five per cent and decrease in excise duty on gasoline and diesel, but the request was not accepted by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

still as the administration doctors have determined to go on an indefinite strike from May 22, a glimmer of hope surfaced on Tuesday with both the government and the striking doctors deciding to take a step forward each to resolve their differences.A meeting between the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) leaders and senior administration officials led by Health Secretary Vishwas Mehta here on Tuesday had helped in contraction down their difference. Though nothing real has been worked out, the two group have critical to meet again on Wednesday to find a solution to the problems raised by the doctors.

going on Tuesday, the administration, for the former time, conceded that some crucial anomalies in the pay scales should certainly be rectified.Earlier, the administration had obtainable assistant surgeons just two increments on their pay scale of Rs.11,910. The cooperation formula that has been evolved is that the scale be raised to Rs.12,280 along with the two increments. As for those in the grade of civil surgeons and upwards, the administration has now offered to give one increment as particular pay and the rest as payment. However, these formulas would have to be work out in feature.

Mr. Mehta tell The Hindu that the talks broken on a optimistic note and that both side were in a border of mind to be flexible.

still after a holdup of over 50 days and a price over-run and revenue loss of more than Rs 300 crore, takeoff for the new Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) is not on because of the whims of the Union social aviation ministry.Early on Wednesday, the countdown for the takeoff was set for midnight May 22.But later in the evening, this was abruptly cancelled following a notification from the civil aviation ministry.The ministry postponed the opening of the airport by 24 hours to May 23 midnight.More India business stories | Stock tips on your mobileIt did not cite any particular reason for pushing back initial date.All the speech said was, “The outer government hereby notifies that the Bengaluru worldwide Airport at Devanahalli would be commissioned with effect from 00.01 hours of 24th May, 2008, instead of 00.01 hours of 23rd May 2008 as notified previous.”

That makes it four postponement of launch dates: March 28, May 11, May 22 and now May 23.An exasperated Albert Brunner, CEO of BIAL, said, “We are taken by surprise. In fact, we have just closed a press conference communicate our preparedness for Thursday.However, there is nothing we can do at this point. All our efforts are now towards minimising passenger and airline inconvenience owing to this postponement.”Bangalore’s new airport has been embroiled in controversies even since the Rs 2,500 crore project begin.The first time the ministry delayed the takeoff, it said that the Airports Authority of India did not think that BIAL’s Air Traffic Control tower was fully ready.Brunner has repeatedly said at numerous press briefing that the BIA has been in the state of watchfulness since a long time.

The airport worker is also facing public interest litigation in the Karnataka High Court for the renegotiation of its contract with the central administration on the issue of closing of the old airport (HAL) after the new airport begins operations.BIAL has also been forced to forego user growth fee (UDF) on domestic passengers for the first thre months.Back-of-the-envelope calculus pegs the airport’s UDF (Rs 675 per domestic passenger) beating at around Rs 300 crore for 140 days (50 days for delay + 90 days that it will not charge the levy), based on a handling capacity of 2,700 passengers per hour.More India production stories | Stock tips on your mobileIf the airport operates for 12 hours a day, then its UDF loss stands at Rs 2.19 crore per day. what’s more the UDF loss, Brunner says, the airport and its partners (concessionaires, retailers and others) were losing revenues of Rs 1.1 crore daily because of the delayed kickoff.”The break-even period of the scheme will get long-drawn-out considerably since of this,” supposed Brunner.

The administration cancelled the first two expedition of the Kailash-Mansarovar yatra on Tuesday after China refused to accept pilgrims until June 21.The shortened yatra this time will have only one batch of pilgrims who will go away Delhi on June 13.While China cited “domestic reasons” for the delay, the real reason is the fact that it wants to keep the Tibet region free of foreigners until the Olympic torch has passed through the area — it’s scheduled to be in Tibet between June 19 and June 21.China is paranoid about letting nation into Tibet before the torch goes through, for fear of unrest or any incident. Both Mount Kailash and Mansarovar are positioned in the Tibet Autonomous Region, hence the Chinese reaction, said superior government sources.

In a statement, the MEA said, “The government of the People’s Republic of China conveyed to the ministry of external affairs that on explanation of domestic reasons they would not be in a position to receiv pilgrims before June 21, 2008.”The Chinese decision was made suddenly, because until May 7, India and China were get ready for the yatra starting on June 1. This was clarify by the MEA spokesperson on that day as well.But soon after, China started to say no visas to pilgrims which sparked speculation. This crystallised over the weekend, when India had to cancel the yatra.

The Chinese have been hit very poorly with Tibetan unrest during the Olympic torch relay and have taken the path of “abundant caution” in their dealings on Tibet.They have even told Nepal to stop treks to Mount Everest from their realm, which is also on a temporary stop. A Nepalese pass through which pilgrims can go to Tibet is also out of bounds this year, said government officials.While these actions actually rebound on China in terms of popular perception, but China believes — and it’s been stated by none less than Hu Jintao — that the Tibet unrest has become a sovereignty issue. Between bad PR and maintaining manage of Tibet, it’s a no-brainer about what is more important to the Chinese state.

The MEA spokesperson said India was trying to accommodate pilgrims in the earlier batches, but sources said this may not really be possible, given the huge demand for this trip.This year, 960 pilgrims were scheduled to go in 16 batches on the highly prized 26-day Kailash-Mansarovar yatra — the last batch is expected to go back on September 24. China has also told India to cut these batches down to eight from 16.The yearly yatra, which is arduous in nature, has been organised by MEA since 1981 under a bilateral arrangement between India and China. While the pilgrims are India’s responsibility, China has been facilitate them over the years, with message cover, etc.