Telangana News

Apart from Rajiv Gandhi International airport in Shamshabad, Telangana state is soon going to have one more airport and even neighboring state Andhra Pradesh will soon have 3 new airports, including an international airport in Bhogapuram near the port city of Vishakhapatnam.

The new airport in Telangana will be built at Kothagudem in Khammam. Coming to AP, along with Bhogapuram, an airport in Dagardarthi in Nellore and Orvakallu in Kurnool, are the two cities, civil aviation ministry cleared for the new airports.

The Bhogapuram airport will be developed by the state government in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) at an estimated cost of Rs. 2200 crore and will cater to 6.3 million passengers a year initially, the government said.

The other two airports in Andhra Pradesh will be developed as domestic no-frills airports at an estimated cost of Rs. 88 crores each.

All the four airports (AP + Telangana) cleared today are greenfield airports, which means they will be built from scratch starting with identifying land for them. Together, they will cost Rs. 2,376 crore to build, the ministry said.

Adding to it, the Central government, under its new civil aviation policy, has recently announced a regional connectivity scheme to encourage flying and link more sectors by air. This will provide incentives to airlines and airports, while capping fare at Rs. 2,500 for one-hour flights.