Telangana government mulls to have three greenfield airports and revival of three brownfield airports in the state. This was announced by Industry Minister KT Rama Rao said on Friday. The greenfield airports are proposed at Bhadradri-Kothagudem; Jakaranpally in Nizamabad district and Gudibanda village in Mahabubnagar district. The brownfield airports are planned at Mamnoor village in Warangal Urban district; Basanthnagar in Peddapally district and Adilabad.
The state government has appointed Airports Authority of India (AAI) as consultant for preparing techno feasibility studies for existing airstrips (brownfield) and feasibility studies for the greenfield airports. The minister revealed this at Wings India 2020, the civil aviation event which began Friday at Begumpet Airport here. He said the state government was planning to re-activate old airports, create greenfield airports and establish a chain of heliports to connect the remote parts of the state. KTR, as the minister is popularly known, said they were actively working with various stakeholders to make the Warangal airport functional. He hoped that this would will boost regional air transport and support the Mega Textile Park and the Information technology hub launched in Warangal.
“We have requested Ministry of Civil Aviation to include Warangal Airport under RCS-UDAN scheme,” he said. He noted that Warangal falls within the concession zone of 150 km agreed with Hyderabad International Airport and the Airport land is under the custody of Airport Authority of India. “With the blessings of Ministry of Civil Aviation, all stakeholders have agreed to work together to operationalise Warangal Airport soon with an operating model similar to Bidar Airport model,” he said. KTR said the government was also planning to establish a world-class Aerospace University in partnership with industry and global universities. The minister said the state see Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) as a great opportunity for investment and high value employment creation and aspire to be a hub for airline and engine MROs activities.
“The state currently has two MROs operated by GMR and Air India. We are in active discussion with various OEMs and operators and are told that our ecosystem offers the best infrastructure and skill base for MROs in India.” He noted that Telangana is the first state to come up with its own Drone policy to develop an ecosystem for the drone/UAV industry. The state government is actively working with start-ups and industry partners to pilot drone use-cases in healthcare, agriculture, mining and law enforcement, he said. The minister said the state envisioned Telangana Drone city to support drone testing, skilling R&D and commercialisation.
Stating that Telangana made massive growth in aerospace sector in the past five years, he said Hyderabad emerged as the most preferred aerospace manufacturing destination in India for Global OEMs. Leading Aerospace majors such as Sikorsky, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, GE, Safran, Rafael, Elbit etc have established their mega manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad. Amongst leading Indian players, TATA group does more than 90 per cent of their Aerospace manufacturing from Hyderabad. Adani Group and Kalyani Group are also expanding their Aerospace and allied projects in Telangana, he added.
