As plans for the city's second airport gain steam, government agencies appear increasingly inclined towards southern Bengaluru, a preference publicly articulated by Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
And plans are also being considered to merge the two shortlisted locations on Kanakapura Road - in the south - into one one "perfect land parcel" that fits the airport's requirements with fewer airspace restrictions and better connectivity.
The plans - outlined to DH by senior officials from the Infrastructure Development Department (IDD), the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) - come even as the state government recently picked Singapore consultancy Meinhardt EPCM to study the feasibility of all three shortlisted locations.
The locations include Chudahalli and Somanahalli (Kanakapura Road) and villages between Kunigal and Nelamangala near Tumakuru Road in the west.
The Kanakapura Road sites - located adjacent to each other - span 4,800 acres and 5,000 acres each, while the one near Nelamangala covers an area of 5,200 acres.
The Rs 4.96-crore contract will cover four broad tasks: assessment of the AAI's study on site feasibility, assessment of site technical feasibility, development of a strategic framework for site selection, and selection of the preferred site. This also includes a traffic demand assessment and forecasting for all three locations.
Although the feasibility report is five months away, Shivakumar has gone on record multiple times to state that the second airport will come up in South Bengaluru.
Well-placed sources in KIADB and AAI reaffirmed the DyCM's statement.
A KIADB official said the land the government has either acquired or has scope to acquire is more on the Kanakapura side compared to the one near Nelamangala.
"As there is more land available on the Kanakapura side, if the government chooses to look at it cumulatively, it allows for more leeway to perfectly carve out the 4,500-5,000 odd acres to build the proposed airport. Multiple combinations can be chalked out to see what works best," he said.
Since the Kanakapura Road locations are adjacent to each other and have overlapping land areas, the feasibility study will evaluate both land parcels individually and jointly.
"An airport in South Bengaluru will offer better connectivity, and there is more demand for it. Some might argue that an airport in Nelamangala could benefit North Karnataka, but that is an unlikely scenario," he added.
When the land near Nelamangala and that near Kanakapura Road are compared, the area identified near Nelamangala has more vegetation.