Hyderabad: The Centre has rejected a proposal to rename Tirupati airport after Lord Venkateswara and the Vijayawada airport after former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao. The ministry of civil aviation said it had not considered these proposals because the policy related to renaming of airports has not been finalised.
“Since the above proposals were received before the formation of the present government (referring to YSRC government), the ministry has requested the state to convey the views of the newly elected government on the above proposals,” minister of state, ministry of civil aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri told Parliament.
In March 2017, the then Telugu Desam government passed a resolution urging the Union civil aviation ministry to rename Tirupati and Vijayawada airports after Lord Venkateswara and N.T. Rama Rao, respectively. Vijayawada airport is located in NTR’s home district, Krishna.
The resolutions to rename both the existing airports were moved in the AP Assembly, on behalf of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. However, it now stands cancelled. The response of the civil aviation ministry in regard to a proposed airport in Kham-mam district of Telangana does not seem positive.
Minister of state, ministry of civil aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri said in Parliament: “To meet huge demand of civil aviation sector in Telangana state, GoI ministry of civil aviation has granted ‘site clearance’ approval to TSIIC for setting up of a greenfield airport at Kothagudem in Khammam district.”
He said that any new airport requires two-stage clearances — site clearance and ‘in-principle approval. “In the case of the proposed airport at Khammam, the site clearance has been granted and further development would depend on preparation of detailed project report (DPR), its economic viability and financial closure subject to the ‘in-principle’ approval,” the minister said.
