WARANGAL / KARIMNAGAR: The decades-long dream of air connectivity to united Warangal and Karimnagar districts is to become a reality with two old airfields scheduled to be developed by union government under the new UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme.
The airports are Mamnoor on outskirts of Warangal city and Basant Nagar in Peddapalli district. State government has submitted a Techno Economic Feasibility report in this regard as required by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Central government had introduced the UDAN scheme in 2016 to make air travel affordable for masses and provide regional air connectivity between developing cities, state capitals and the national capital.
Incidentally, union government had introduced Vayudoot air services from Mamnoor airfield between 1970 to 1977 and from Basant Nagar airport between 1975 and 1982. Subsequently, government stopped these services in view of high costs. Plans are now afoot to re-introduce services from these two airports.
Groundwork for this had been done by municipal administration minister K.T. Rama Rao and state planning commission board vice chairman B. Vinod Kumar, who met civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri in New Delhi. They submitted proposals for setting up six mini airports in Telangana.
Thereafter, officials from Airport Authority of India (AAI) inspected the airfields at Mamnoor and Basant Nagar. They asked state government to prepare Detailed Project Reports (DPRs), along with details of high flood levels at Mamnoor and Basant Nagar airports.
Currently, 750 acres of land is available in Mamnoor against 1,140 acres. There is some government land available in the surrounding Nakkalapally and Gadepally villages, which the government has acquired.
Basant Nagar airport is spread over 40 acres of land at present and it requires an additional 700 acres. Officials of revenue department have conducted a survey and identified lands on survey numbers 363, 301 and 413 between Palakurthi, Kurmapally, Basant Nagar and Reginedu village panchayats and have submitted their report to the state government.
Armed with the information, state government has now submitted the Techno Economic Feasibility report to the central government. Among other things, the government has pointed out that apart from providing air connectivity to people, the two airports will also promote tourism in spots like Ramappa and Thousand Pillars temples, Warangal fort, Ramgiri Killa, Kaleshwaram, Bhadrakali, Dharmapuri, Kondagattu and Vemulawada temples. There are also scenic spots along River Godavari, apart from a tiger reserve in Adilabad district.
Once the mini-airports come, there is enormous development in areas of erstwhile Warangal and Karimnagar districts.
