Chief Minister vows to bring airport to Adilabad

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Thursday vowed to bring Adilabad on the aviation map saying the works on the proposed airport in the district headquarters town will commence within a year.

Airbus will land in Adilabad, once considered most backward district, where even buses hardly traversed, and the air connectivity will promote economic growth and tourism in the region, he said while addressing a public meeting christened as “Praja Palana – Praja Vijayotsava Sabha” in Adilabad on Thursday.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Thursday vowed to bring Adilabad on the aviation map saying the works on the proposed airport in the district headquarters town will commence within a year.

Airbus will land in Adilabad, once considered most backward district, where even buses hardly traversed, and the air connectivity will promote economic growth and tourism in the region, he said while addressing a public meeting christened as “Praja Palana – Praja Vijayotsava Sabha” in Adilabad on Thursday.

ADILABAD

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Thursday vowed to bring Adilabad on the aviation map saying the works on the proposed airport in the district headquarters town will commence within a year.

Airbus will land in Adilabad, once considered most backward district, where even buses hardly traversed, and the air connectivity will promote economic growth and tourism in the region, he said while addressing a public meeting christened as “Praja Palana – Praja Vijayotsava Sabha” in Adilabad on Thursday.

“When we approached, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu agreed to cooperate for setting up of an airport in Adilabad if the State government allotted land. With the cooperation of the Centre, our government will see to it that the airport works begins within a year,” he said.

Mr. Reddy received huge applause from the audience when he apparently referred to the State government’s initiative to acquire 700 acres of land for development of joint-user airport in Adilabad, where an old airstrip of the IAF is located. The air connectivity will boost economic growth in the region and also make travel hassle-free for tourists from all over the country to the eco-tourism spots, including the tiger reserve in the forests straddling Telangana and Maharashtra, he noted.

Mr. Reddy trained his guns on the previous BRS rulers, alleging that they had arbitrarily changed the location of the main barrage planned under the Pranahita-Chevella project from Tummidihatti in Adilabad district to Medigadda under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP). They (BRS rulers) changed the name of the project initiated by the then Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government in united Andhra Pradesh, and constructed the KLIP with an escalated cost of a whopping ₹ 1 lakh crore. But the project crashed within three years of its construction, resulting in colossal waste of public money. The previous BRS rulers deprived the farmers of the undivided Adilabad district of assured water for irrigation, he said.

Mr. Reddy said the government will take up the Pranahita-Chevella project by constructing a barrage at Tummidihatti to provide irrigation facilities to the entire undivided Adilabad district. “We have already initiated the process for taking up the project expeditiously,” he said, urging Adilabad MP G. Nagesh and MLA Payal Shanker of the BJP to prevail upon the BJP-led governments at the Centre and Maharashtra to ensure speedy execution of the project.

Referring to the Cement Corporation of India (CCI)’s defunct unit in Adilabad, he said, “We will strive to ensure setting up a cement factory in Adilabad to provide job opportunities to the local youth. I have invited Soniyamma (Sonia Gandhi), and others for the Telangana Rising global summit on December 8 and 9. Ms. Sonia Gandhi promised statehood to Telangana and fulfilled it,” he recalled, adding, “Our Indiramma rajyam (Congress government) is committed to the all-round development of the State to realise the objectives for which Telangana came into being in 2014.”