Summary:
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh government signed a concession agreement with SCL-Turbo consortium of Nellore International Airport Private limited (NIAL) for the development of greenfield airport in Dagadarthi, in Nellore district, on Thursday.The agreement was signed between energy, infrastructure and investments, principal secretary Ajay Jain, MD Andhra Pradesh Airport Development Corporation (APADCL) M Venkateswarlu, and MD of NAIL Vankayapati Umesh.The Dagadarthi airport is supposed to be a low-cost, no-frills airport to be developed on public-private-partnership (PPP) basis. The airport will be located 25 km from Nellore town, and will be a catalyst for the socio-economic, tourism and industrial development of SPSR Nellore district and adjoining regions, he said. 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 new state of Andhra Pradesh on PPP basis. The airport will have a runway length of 3,150 m to handle category 4E wide body passenger, and cargo aircraft operations.According to Ajay Jain, the commercial operations from Dagadarthi airport, are expected to commence from January 2020. The airport shall be designed with a handling capacity of 1.9 million passengers and 55,000 metric tonnes of cargo per annum in the ultimate phase..