The Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Civil Aviation have designated nodal officers to work with the Telangana government on developing a joint-use airfield in Adilabad for both defence and civil aviation.
According to the Deccan Chronicle, the Ministry of Defence has appointed Air Commodore Rahul Shukla, Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station Begumpet, and Capt. Jyoti Prakash Sabharwal, CATO, Training Command IAF, Bengaluru, as nodal officers.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has appointed Sujoy Dey, executive director (Architecture), as its nodal officer. Meanwhile, Adilabad District Collector Rajarshi Shah’s name has been proposed as the nodal officer by the state government.
However, the DC cited sources that said that local elected public representatives of Adilabad requested the state government to replace the Collector with Bhrath Reddy, director of Telangana Civil Aviation.
Joint-use airfield at Adilabad
The state government has sanctioned Rs 2,278.14 crore for the development of the joint‑use airfield at Adilabad, for which it will acquire 2,009.23 acres: 1,609.23 acres for the Indian Air Force and 400 acres for the civil aviation enclave, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), cargo facilities, and hangars.
Only last week, Union Minister for Coal and Mines, Kishan Reddy, had said that nodal officers would be appointed by the state government, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Defence Ministry to expedite the establishment of the airport.
