Waiting for your flight at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) will not be the same again from December 14. The new extensions of the domestic and international terminals are getting a ‘southern’ makeover where passengers will get a slice of south India.
A sneak peak into the new terminals for the media on Wednesday — the terminals are being readied for a formal inauguration this month — pointed to what visitors can expect at the airport. Apart from the strikingly southern décor, including Chettinad pillars, walls with a rough, traditional finish and light fittings that remind one of south Indian villages, there is a predominantly southern ‘tadka’ to the food.
For instance, a meal at the newly opened Malgudi Tiffin Centre would mean tucking into authentic south Indian cuisine such as ‘ennai kathrikai’, ‘gangoora kodi’, ‘idiappam’ and ‘palada payasam’. The appetiser here is pepper rasam — that is how local it gets.
Murali Murthy G., executive chef, India region, at the Malgudi Tiffin Centre said the service would be customised. So a customer who does have the time and appetite for a full thali will be served à la carte and also in traditional tiffin boxes.
Rene Baumann, vice-president, commercial, BIAL, said food historians were consulted before arriving at the menu. “We want to make Bangalore the gateway to south India,” he added.
This is probably where the upcoming space adjacent to the Malgudi Tiffin Centre fits in. Offering a wide variety of spices and coffee beans, the bright space will also offer trivia about various coffee beans grown in different regions, for example, said B. Bhaskar, senior director, finance and support services, BIAL. “The international terminal will have continental cuisine as well,” he added.
Post the expansion, the total terminal area will go up from 73,347 sq m to 1,50,500 sq m.
The number of check in counters will increase from 53 to 86, while emigration (out-bound) and immigration (in-bound) counters will go up from 18 to 24.
Terminal 1 will be inaugurated on December 14, which is also when the BIA will be named after the city’s founding father Kempe Gowda.
