The State government’s fresh move to set up six airports in the State has once again rekindled hopes among people over the airport at Jakranpally in the district - proposed 11 years ago when Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister.
People are happy over the fresh move as they feel it would enable migrant workers in Gulf countries, besides others, to travel with comfort from anywhere in the world.
According to unofficial sources, about 5 lakh people from erstwhile undivided districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad are working in the Gulf, and of them 2 lakh belong to the district alone.
Though it is reported that an official team of Civil Aviation department is arriving to inspect the site on August 19, Collector M. Ram Mohan Rao said that as of now he has no official communication.
“I have also seen only in newspapers. Let us see whether any information comes late night,” he said.
When the proposal was made for the first time in 2008, the then Jakranpally MPP president Ananth Reddy, through the then Minister S. Santhosh Reddy, presented a report to the government giving details of land availability in the mandal.
Subsequently, authorities identified 1,200 acres of assigned land and 800 acres patta land for the purpose.
Civil Aviation authorities had later expressed satisfaction over the land identified for construction of airport.
Well-connected
Located 25 kilometres east of the district headquarters adjacent to National Highway-44, the site is well0connected with all parts of north Telangana. It is closer to Armoor railway station, NH-63 and Telangana University.
The identified land is plain and spread over Jakranpally, Argul, Terlikonda, Kolipaka and Manoharabad villages.
Greenfield Project had reportedly come forward to construct the airport.
However, the proposal for the airport was shelved in February 2015 as he Civil Aviation officials found the proposed site inconvenient and asked the State government through a letter to identify another site.
In 2016, the State Government once again sent another proposal to the Centre.
Gulf Telangana Cultural and Welfare Association founder president, Patkuri Basanth Reddy, who hails from Manoharabad in Jakranpally mandal, feels that the airport at the said site would be most suitable and economically viable as between 3,000 and 4,000 people from the three districts travel to Gulf countries every day.
There are 30 flights daily to Gulf countries from Shamshabad airport and if the proposed airport at Jakranpally materialises, it would help the poor migrant workers not only from the three districts, but also from neighbouring Maharashtra, he said.
