Work on five minor airports in Karnataka has been halted owing to several reasons including land acquisition dispute, breach of agreements and withdrawal of promoters from projects due to lack of financial viability.

The five airports - Gulbarga, Bellary, Bijapur, Hassan, and Shimoga were proposed on public private partnership (PPP) model with the intention of providing air connectivity to Tier-II cities and thereby ensuring fuel economic growth in those cities.

The government has initiated the process of terminating the Gulbarga project for which 567 acre of land had been acquired.

Work on Hassan and Bijapur airports faced hurdles because the private agency which obtained the contract to implement it, is demanding additional land.

The airport project in Bellary has not taken off due to land acquisition disputes with some farmers approaching the court. Moreover, Airport Authority of India too had declared that the project was inviable.

All the five projects have not been shelved, and the government will explore opportunities to develop them by focusing on the stability of the government as well availability of land to develop these projects.