Airport may not be closed at Begumpet

The city may be able to retain the Begumpet airport if the Centre accepts a Parliamentary committee's suggestion to allow multiple airports in metros. According to the committee, this would reduce congestion and cater to increasing air traffic.

The Centre has an agreement with GMR Group that is building the airport at Shamshabad that no other airport would be allowed within an aerial distance of 150 km. However, passengers would be happy to have two airports. So would airliners, who can save fuel by avoiding long waits for landing clearance.

All major cities including New York, London, Paris and Tokyo have two airports. The Central government's Airport Infrastructure Policy 1997 does not go against multiple airports.

New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are considered metropolitan cities by the union civil aviation ministry. Air India director Jitender Bhargava termed it a good suggestion and said that one airport could be termed primary and the other secondary.

"It helps passengers and airliners," he added. "The primary airport can charge more for landing and the secondary less. This will be of help to low-cost flights."

Frequent flyers are keen on the Begumpet airport being functional even after the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad gets operational in the first half of 2008.

Road to airport still not clear

Hyderabad 15 Nov'07: Chief Minister Rajasekhar Reddy's plan to provide connectivity to the international airport at Shamshabad by March 2008 may not work.

Though he gave orders four months ago to remove hurdles in the construction of the Outer Ring Road, elevated expressway and the Inner Ring Road, nothing has happened so far.

Dr Reddy is scheduled to chair another high level review meeting on Thursday but it is not likely that things would fall in place before March, when the new airport would become operational.

Sources said that the road widening between Sangeet Theatre and Tarnaka had not moved an inch forward because of the reluctance of Railways to part with its land. It has sought a compensation of Rs 148 crores for the 2 km stretch.

Research and defense organizations coming in the 52 km IRR had agreed to give away land on lease of Rs 1 per acre per annum, but Railways insists on market value for its land.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is also lagging behind in its task of acquiring private properties and removing encroachments near Habsiguda, Mettuguda and Banjara Hills.

Though ORR authorities assured the Chief Minister that the four lane road from Gachibowli to Shamshabad would be ready by March, the work would take at least three more months.

"Despite the CM giving instructions to AP police academy to vacate all the buildings coming in the alignment of the ORR and demolish them, it has not been done," sources said.

The expressway is also behind schedule. Only 77 out of 133 piers and 327 segments out of 1,300 have been completed so far. Dr Reddy had also sought a joint drive by the police and municipal officials to solve the problem of trucks being parked blocking the construction of the six lane road below the expressway.

"However, Huda managing director Jayesh Ranjan merely wrote a letter to the traffic police, who did not bother to take any action," a senior official said.