Irrespective of the concerns aired by the GMR Group, the Airports Authority of India will go ahead and develop a non-operating airport at Warangal, along with 25 other such airports, during the 12th Five Year Plan period.
“We already have some land. We have requested the state government to allot some more and are awaiting action on it,” said V.P. Agrawal, chairman of AAI, on the side-lines of a CEOs’ conclave organised on Wednesday as part of India Aviation 2012 in Hyderabad.
The development of the Warangal airport will be less than 100 nautical miles from Hyderabad, had faced stiff resistance from the GMR Group as it could affect the income of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
The group has also claimed that development of the Warangal airport runs contrary to the concession agreement, which bars building a new airport within a radius of 150 nautical miles of RGIA. However, the AAI chairman claimed that the agreement disallowed the construction of new airport but did not bar development of an already existing airport.