The foundation stone for the Vijayapura (Bijapur) airport was laid in February. The airport will be constructed at a cost of Rs.2.2 bn under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model on 727 acre in Burnapura and Madhabavi villages in the Vijayapura district. Currently, the airport runway will be equipped to handle the ATR-72 fleet but will gradually be extended to allow the Airbus 320 fleet as well. The proposed airport when operational will boost local tourism and generate employment. Along with Vijayapura, two other airport projects in the pipeline are Hassan and Shivamogga. Currently, Karnataka has eight operational airports: Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hubballi, Mysuru, Vijayanagar, Kalaburagi and Bidar.