One more step forward

Warangal: One more step forward has been taken for setting up airport at Mamnoor. The Telangana State Aviation Academy (TSAA) representatives held discussions with the Warangal Urban District Collector Prashant Jeevan Patil at the Collectorate on Monday.

Presently 706 acres of land is available under the Mamnoor airport. This land, under the jurisdiction of Airports Authority of India, remained unused since 1981 and only a compound wall was constructed around the land.

As per an agreement made by the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport with the government, no commercial airport should be built within 150 kilometres radius under its purview. Warangal is just 146 km from the Samshabad airport. Despite that, as per the Udaan scheme announced by the Centre, it has been decided to facilitate the construction of an airport in Warangal as part of regional integration of airports.

As part of it, the State government had chalked out a plan under the Telangana State Aviation Academy, which looks after the Begumpet airport. In case the Mamnoor airport becomes into reality, this would be one more airport under the TSAA.

However, technically the Mamnoor airport land is in the hands of Airports Authority of India. The District Collector said they would appeal to the State government to take over the land from the AAI and later, the State government would allocate the same to the TSAA. The Academy representatives revealed that the airport would be operationalised soon after the land acquisition.

The District Collector further said they were also sending proposals for the construction of runway, drinking water, and power supply for which an estimated Rs 8 crore funds would be needed.

In case if the Mamnoor airport becomes into reality, the industrial, educational, cultural and tourism sectors would get a fillip and it would definitely a boon for a tourism hub like Warangal. Cargo and domestic flights could be run from Mamnoor airport to meet the needs of textile park and Ramagundam industries.

The TSAA honorary secretary Captain S N Reddy, honorary additional secretary G B Reddy, member-consultant P R P Rao, Fort Warangal Tahsildar Kiran Kumar, R&B SE M Satyanarayana and E E Rajam were among others present.