VIJAYAWADA: The AP government on Thursday signed a concession agreement for the development of a greenfield airport at Dagadarthi in Nellore district. The agreement was signed between representatives of the AP Airport Development Corporation Ltd (APADCL) and private developer SCL-Turbo consortium of the Nellore International Airport Pvt Ltd (NIAL).
Tollywood actor Ram Charan is one of the directors and brand ambassador of Turbo Megha Airways Pvt Ltd, the flagship company of the SCL-Turbo consortium. The Dagadarthi airport is envisaged to be a low-cost, no-frills affair to be developed on a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis. The airport will be developed on 1,352 acres at a cost of Rs 368 crore and will be the first airport project to be developed in the state on a PPP basis.
The airport will be designed to ultimately handle 1.9 million passengers and 55,000 tonnes of cargo a year. It will have a 3,150-metre runway to handle category 4E wide-body passenger and cargo aircraft. The date of the foundation stone laying ceremony would be decided in consultation with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and is tentatively expected to be in July or August.
SCL seeks to tap Chennai air traffic
Of the two bids that Bhogapuram International Airport Corp. Ltd (BIACL) received to develop Dagadha-rthi airport, actor Ram Charan’s company offered nine per cent revenue share to the government, acco-rding to government sources. BIACL is the state government’s nodal agency to develop airports in the state including the greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district. BIACL was later rena-med as AP Airport De-velopment Corp Ltd.
Last year, there were reports that the state government had shelved the airport proposals at Dagadharthi due to various reasons. Turbo Megha is planning to tap air cargo traffic which has reached congestion point at Chennai on the lines of the Krishnapatnam seaport in Nellore district which tapped Chennai Port’s passenger and cargo traffic.
