Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy announced that the land acquisition for the long-pending Warangal airport has been fully completed and handed over to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). He invited suggestions from the public on what to name the new airport in Warangal’s Mamnoor.
Union Minister for Civil Aviation K Rammohan Naidu had previously said that the airport could be completed in 30 months once the state government handed over the required land to AAI.
On September 14, AAI floated a tender worth Rs 213.59 crore for the development of the Warangal airport, with works including construction of a new domestic terminal building, an Air Traffic Control Tower cum Technical Block, Fire Station, and other associated works.
“This is not just an airport. It is a new gateway for industry, tourism, education, jobs and investment,” CM Revanth said.
Telangana currently has only one operational airport, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad. The Mamnoor airport in Warangal has remained defunct for decades and attempts to revive it have been ongoing for years since the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) was in power.
While 696 acres of land at Mamnoor was already with the AAI, the Telangana government had sanctioned Rs 295 crore to acquire another 280 acres. The new airport will be located at a distance of less than 150 km from the existing Shamshabad airport near Hyderabad, for which a no-objection certificate had to be obtained from the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL).
Another defunct pre-independence era airstrip in Adilabad is also proposed to be developed as a defence airport, with an enclave for civil operations.