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Centre Says No To International Airport At Vizag
Posted by Pradeep Sadanapalli | June 26, 2008 | 949 views
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...The Union min istry of defence has denied permission for the proposed international airport at S.
Rayavaram near Visakhapatnam citing security threats.
The state government, however, is in no mood to relent and the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, will shortly dash off a letter to the Centre conveying the state’s decision to go ahead with the project.
Official sources told this correspondent that as an alternative proposal, the state may even ask the defence authorities to leave the existing airport to civil operations and shift to S. Rayavaram.
The state and the Airports Authority of India zeroed in on Rayavaram because of locational advantage.
“The ministry had recently written to the government denying permission,” a senior official said. The ministry stated that the Navy would set up the Naval Alternative Operations Depot and a submarine plant near Visakhapatnam and the location is eight km away from the proposed site for the airport.
The ministry was avoiding the issue for the past one year and did not give any specific details whenever the state sought clarifications.
Sources said the ministry initially replied that the distance between the airport and the proposed naval depot should be“reasonable” but was never specific.
The state government officials dismiss the ministry’s argument of security threat as the existing airport, where the civil operations are also carried out, is in the range of below five kilometres from all the naval establishments.
SOURCES:
Deccan Chronicle
Topics: Airports |
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