New airports to come up in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

Civil aviation infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is all set to see a massive expansion with the approval accorded for four greenfield airports in the two neighbouring states. Andhra Pradesh gets three, including two to be developed on a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis, the Central government gave "site clearance" for the new airport to come up in Telangana.

The airports will be set up in Bhogapuram, Dagadarthi (Nellore) and Orvakallu (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh and at Kothagudem in Telangana.

"The airports entail investment of more than Rs. 2,000 crore and are expected to give a boost to the burgeoning civil aviation market in India, current the fastest-growing in the world. The new International airport at Bhogapuram will be developed by the State Government under PPP mode at an estimated cost of Rs.2200 crore to cater to 6.3 million passengers per annum (mppa) in the initial phase," the civil aviation ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The other two airports in Andhra Pradesh will cost about Rs. 88 crore each and will be developed as "no-frills" airports, the government said. "Dagadarthi will be developed under PPP mode whereas project at Orvakallu will be developed by State Government itself," the statement added.

Air India, IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GoAir, AirAsia India, Vistara and other domestic carriers flew about 83 lakh (8.3 million) passengers during the month of August, an increase of 24 percent over the same month last year.