MANGALORE, KARNATAKA - 9th November 2009
Sunday afternoons represent another long-standing family tradition in Mangalore - the family drive. The number of family taking part fluctuate (other than my grandma, whose presence is a given), depending on who's actually in Mangalore, but with both my uncle down from Mumbai and myself present, at 4.20pm yesterday we were all systems go.
In my newfound capacity as family driver, I took the wheel as we embarked on a leisurely cruise up to Bajpe Airport - the colloquial name for Mangalore Airport (taken from the name of the area adjacent to the old terminal building). Much like all of Mangalore, the airport is currently in the midst of a massive redevelopment - the first stage of which involved the construction of a brand new runway.
In days gone by (specifically, up to 2006 or so), landing at Mangalore would have been one of those outside-the-box challenges that broke pilots' collective boredom from daily metronomic routine. The old runway was short - very short - with a 500ft sheer drop into valleys at either end. To put it in perspective just how short is short, a standard airport runway (e.g. Heathrow) is 12,000ft long (a bit over 3500 metres); the old Mangalore runway was 1615 metres. So with a less-than-half-length runway to deal with, pilots landing at Bajpe had to decide by half-way down the runway whether they had enough time to come to a halt, or else re-accelerate and try again second time. Not for the faint of heart at any time, but come between June and August and you're combining an already dubious landing with an ever-changing wind direction (the airport's on top of a hill), the liquefied battering of monsoon rain, and visibility on a par with the Sahara desert at midnight. Pretty grim.
But what with India's explosive growth and Mangalore's increasing importance in Karnataka and in general in southern India, a half-baked airport was never going to last long (however entertaining it was for kids travelling with mothers who already hate flying). A brand spanking new runway was built, alongside 24 hour approach lighting (allowing for night flights), and all of a sudden Mangalore was an international airport - flights from all sorts of Middle East destinations turn up every day. But the second part was the building of a new international calibre terminal, which is now almost complete.
This blog may seem to have swung wildly off topic, but the crux of the story is that while we were driving up en route to the old airport - a 30km ride all the way around the hill that Bajpe sits on top, we chanced our luck on the new concrete slip road towards the new terminal (built on the "front" on the hill, thus knocking half the distance off the journey). The road has literally been constructed straight up what was a sheer cliff - imagine a concrete dual carriageway, breaking every 25 metres into a huge hairpin bends). The engineering to get the road built is spectacular, but not half as spectacular as the view from the top. To the south west lies the city centre of Mangalore, its urban sprawl contained by the rivers that surround it, and out beyond the Arabian Sea spreads out into infinity. To the north-west lies MRPL - Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd. - a massive refinery complex (surprise surprise) that is one of the major heavy industries located around the outskirts of the city... but it turned out we'd be seeing a lot more of it that I thought at the time.
Thoroughly pleased with ourselves for seeing the new terminal building and the view for the first time, we heading back down, but decided to head on up to the old airport anyway. Getting closer there, we decided to wing a left and head towards the Bajpe village... and then one thing led to another and we kept driving down the road. I say "one thing led to another" - one village led to another, and bar a good sense of direction none of us really knew where we were - other than that we were heading north so we should stick a left somewhere.
Eventually we saw a sign that suggested we'd arrived in Kateel... I'd be lying if I said I'd ever heard of the place but it seemed to register with the others, and so onwards we marched (*drove) through some of the best roads I've ever seen in South Canara district. It was just like driving down a typical English countryside road - smooth as silk, greenery sprawling in every direction either side of you, and not a car to be seen for 10, even 15 minutes at a time. At one stage, far over to our south-west, we saw the massive exhaust towers of the MRPL complex... a fair reflection on how far we'd come.
Eventually we ended up in Kinnigoly, and passing the opportunity to pick up some good looking watermelons, we head westward to National Highway 17, and bombed it back down the coast to Mangalore - now passing MRPL from the West. Final journey distance? According to a Google Map I just drew, a cool 65km...
And you can see all the details - including Howzat's location - below! Double-click to zoom in...
But what with India's explosive growth and Mangalore's increasing importance in Karnataka and in general in southern India, a half-baked airport was never going to last long (however entertaining it was for kids travelling with mothers who already hate flying). A brand spanking new runway was built, alongside 24 hour approach lighting (allowing for night flights), and all of a sudden Mangalore was an international airport - flights from all sorts of Middle East destinations turn up every day. But the second part was the building of a new international calibre terminal, which is now almost complete.
This blog may seem to have swung wildly off topic, but the crux of the story is that while we were driving up en route to the old airport - a 30km ride all the way around the hill that Bajpe sits on top, we chanced our luck on the new concrete slip road towards the new terminal (built on the "front" on the hill, thus knocking half the distance off the journey). The road has literally been constructed straight up what was a sheer cliff - imagine a concrete dual carriageway, breaking every 25 metres into a huge hairpin bends). The engineering to get the road built is spectacular, but not half as spectacular as the view from the top. To the south west lies the city centre of Mangalore, its urban sprawl contained by the rivers that surround it, and out beyond the Arabian Sea spreads out into infinity. To the north-west lies MRPL - Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd. - a massive refinery complex (surprise surprise) that is one of the major heavy industries located around the outskirts of the city... but it turned out we'd be seeing a lot more of it that I thought at the time.
Thoroughly pleased with ourselves for seeing the new terminal building and the view for the first time, we heading back down, but decided to head on up to the old airport anyway. Getting closer there, we decided to wing a left and head towards the Bajpe village... and then one thing led to another and we kept driving down the road. I say "one thing led to another" - one village led to another, and bar a good sense of direction none of us really knew where we were - other than that we were heading north so we should stick a left somewhere.
Eventually we saw a sign that suggested we'd arrived in Kateel... I'd be lying if I said I'd ever heard of the place but it seemed to register with the others, and so onwards we marched (*drove) through some of the best roads I've ever seen in South Canara district. It was just like driving down a typical English countryside road - smooth as silk, greenery sprawling in every direction either side of you, and not a car to be seen for 10, even 15 minutes at a time. At one stage, far over to our south-west, we saw the massive exhaust towers of the MRPL complex... a fair reflection on how far we'd come.
Eventually we ended up in Kinnigoly, and passing the opportunity to pick up some good looking watermelons, we head westward to National Highway 17, and bombed it back down the coast to Mangalore - now passing MRPL from the West. Final journey distance? According to a Google Map I just drew, a cool 65km...
And you can see all the details - including Howzat's location - below! Double-click to zoom in...
View Long drive in a larger map
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