Airport remains mirage for people of Adilabad

People of the district have been demanding successive union governments to establish an airport as Adilabad town is located around 250 kilometres from Hyderabad and Nagpur of Maharashtra.

Adilabad: The long pending dream of an airport remains to be a mirage for the people of Adilabad district even as land for the facility is available.

People of the district have been demanding successive Union governments to establish an airport as Adilabad town is located around 250 kilometres from Hyderabad and Nagpur of Maharashtra. They are forced to depend on either Hyderabad or Nagpur to fly to different parts of the country or abroad for various needs including education and business.

---

Incidentally, an aerodrome was established on 369 acres of land on the peripherals of Adilabad town by the then Nizam of Hyderabad in order to fill fuel for fighter aircrafts proceeding to battlefronts in 1930. It went under the control of the Indian Air Force, following Independence in 1947. It was used as a refueling point again for helicopters used for training pilots till the late 1970s. In 2014, the IAF proposed to convert the aerodrome into a full-fledged Air Force Station. It had sought the district administration to identify adequate land for this purpose. Accordingly, 1,592 acres of land was identified by revenue officials under the limits of Kachakanti, Khanapur, Thantoli and Anukunta villages abutting the existing aerodrome in 2017.

Airport Authority of India (AAI) deputy manager Amith Kumar and assistant general manager Neeraj Gupta expressed satisfaction over the conditions in Adilabad district centre for setting up an airport in 2019. They inspected the piece of land meant for an airport and studied feasibility for establishing the facility and made the remarks. However, there was no major step forward in the process of providing air connectivity to people of the district except for assurances of various political parties at the time of polls.

“People are forced to spend more time travelling by trains in order to reach religious centres located outside Telangana. Similarly, businessmen of Adilabad town frequently would regularly travel to Nagpur, Hyderabad and Mumbai,” Jagadish Agarwal, a trader, said.

Adilabad MP G Nagesh said he had met union civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu who responded positively to his plea, rekindling hopes of the people. “The minister instructed officials to submit a report by visiting the town soon. He promised to set up the airport if the State government hands over the land to the Centre,” Nagesh said.