The Ministry of Civil Aviation has given its approval to conduct a feasibility study for establishing seven new airports in Andhra Pradesh. The Union government gave its nod on August 19 to the study after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu assured land allocation for the new airports in a meeting held with the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu.
The new airports are proposed for Kuppam in Chittoor district, Dagadarthi in Nellore district, Nagarjuna Sagar in Palnadu district, Anantapur, Kakinada, Srikakulam, and Prakasam districts. With this, the number of airports in the state will increase from seven to 14. The proposed airports are expected to significantly boost economic growth and tourism expansion.
The current cities with airports include Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Tirupathi, Kadapa, and Kurnool. Efforts are underway to develop and renovate some of these airports. Specifically, the terminal capacity expansion is being planned for Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, and Kadapa airports. “We will do our part to develop the state and take it forward with the aviation sector. We plan to increase the airports and their infrastructure to benefit the people of AP and make it more accessible to them,” said Rammohan Naidu.
Additionally, the Union government will assess plans for establishing airports in Ongole, Tadepalligudem, and between Tuni and Annavaram during a second phase. Chandrababu assured his support for the plans to introduce water aerodomes in the waters of Prakasam and Srisailam to attract tourism. Plans are underway to convert the private airport in Puttaparthi for public use.
Similar efforts were made during Naidu’s earlier tenure as CM and then Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju proposed a similar expansion. However, the development of these airports slowed down after YS Jagan Mohan Reddy became Chief Minister in 2019.
The shift in leadership led to a reevaluation of ongoing projects, including airport developments initiated by the previous government and many of those projects were stalled. The development of greenfield airports like Bhogapuram International Airport was stalled due to a financial crunch and problems with land acquisition.
Development in the aviation sector slowed down further after the resignations of Ashok Gajapathi and another Telugu Desam Party minister, Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary from the Union cabinet in 2018 over the special status issue for Andhra Pradesh.