Kolkata, Jan 10 (IANS) The first phase of the Bengal Aerotropolis, the airport city project at West Bengal’s Andal, will be completed by the end of this year and commercial arrangements with domestic airlines are expected to be finalised in February, a company official said Tuesday.

“The first phase of the project will be operational in the last quarter of 2012,” Subrata Paul, CEO and director of the promoter company, Bengal Aerotropolis Projects (BAPL), told reporters on the sidelines of a “Bengal Leads 2012″, a business summit organised by the state government here.

The company said it was already in talks with different domestic airlines and will convene an “airlines meet” in the first week of February to firm up commercial arrangements.

“The airlines meet is expected to take place either on Feb 7 or Feb 8, where BAPL is likely to firm up commercial arrangements with these airlines. We are also in discussion with different airlines to start operating in the region,” Paul said.

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS;) had picked up 12.6 percent stake in the BAPL for around Rs.65 crore. Changi Airports India Pte Ltd, Singapore, which is an associate company of Changi Airport International, came into the joint venture in 2009 by picking up 26 percent stake for $20 million.

Spread over nearly around 1,818 acres of land, the airport-city project near the industrial belt of Asansol-Durgapur, is 160 km away from Kolkata. Nearly a third of the project area will consist of the airport, while the remaining area will comprise housing projects, hospitals, IT hubs and industrial zones.

BAPL Tuesday signed an MoU with the Mission Hospital to set up a 500-bed multi-speciality facility hospital at the aerotropolis.

Hospital chairman Satyajit Bose said it would invest nearly Rs 1.5 billion to set up the facility.