Warangal: Hopes of Mamnoor Airport revival still intact

Warangal: The revival of Mamnoor Airport is one of the most cherished dreams of the people in and around Warangal. However, it remained elusive to them for a long time for various reasons. The 1930-commissioned Mamnoor airfield, located on the suburbs of Warangal, went dysfunctional in the mid-1980s. Since then, it has become a moot point for the political parties, but there was no genuine attempt to operationalise the airstrip which potentially could trigger economic development of the region.

The revival of the airfield is not all that easy as there was a huge gap between requirement and availability. Presently, the airport has around 706 acres, as against the requirement of at least 1,200 acres, as specified by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The other major hurdle before the State Government is to get rid of the Exclusivity Clause - 5.2.2 signed by it and GMR Group which developed Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad in 2004. The clause says no new or existing airport shall be permitted to be developed as, or improved or upgraded into, a domestic airport within an aerial distance of 150 km of the RGIA before 2029.

Against this backdrop, the Warangal district administration formed a joint inspection team consisting of officials from the Revenue, the AAI, and the Survey and Land Records department. Warangal district collector P Pravinya says, “The joint inspection team will come up with a geo-coordinate based map for the required 271 acres spread across Nakkalapally, Gadepalli, and Mamnoor villages under Fort Warangal mandal adjacent to the existing airstrip. The survey will be completed within a week.” Thereafter, the district administration will initiate the land acquisition process from the farmers, she added.

A few days ago, the collector met the Minister for Panchayat Raj ErrabelliDayakar Rao and discussed the proposed swapping of government land measuring 373.02 acres, currently under the possession of PV Narasimha Rao Veterinary University, with the farmers in lieu of their land acquired for the airstrip. It may be mentioned here that extension of the existing runway from 1.8 km to 3.9 km is an imperative need to operate the Boeing airplanes.