CM N Chandrababu Naidu asks GMR to set up airport in Kakinada soon

KAKINADA: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that an airport would be set up in Kakinada as the city needed it due to its rich resources and huge oil and exploration activities and also port activities. 

Mr Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone for the construction of a Greenfield Commercial Port and also gas pipeline by Andhra Pradesh Gas Distribution Company.

Haldia Petrochemicals Limited also signed an MoU with the state government to set up a Petroleum Refinery Project in Kakinada Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) area on Friday at JNTUK Sports Grounds here.

In this connection, Mr Naidu made a suggestion to the GMR Group to set up an airport in Kakinada, as the Group had vast experience in developing infrastructure projects. 

The GMR Group has built the Shamshabad Airport at Hyderabad, where international flights land and take off.

He made the suggestion after a memorandum of understanding was signed in his presence by the officials of the Kakinada Special Economic Zone and the state government for setting up a greenfield port at Kona village in the KSEZ area in East Godavari.

He said that Kakinada was one of the most important coastal towns in the state, as it was located in the Krishna-Godavari basin, there was a big agricultural base in the two Godavari districts and now with the new port in the city and also a petrochemical complex coming up in the KSEZ, Kakinda city would become important not only in the state but in the country as well.