Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Friday approved an agreement with IndiGo Airlines to operate flights from Kadapa and Kurnool airports.
The airline will operate four services a week starting from March 27, Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkatramaiah (Nani) told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
The Cabinet also gave a nod for the allocation of five acres of land in Tirupati to ace badminton player Kidambi Srikanth for setting up an academy. It also approved sanction of 50 acres of land to Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) at Anakapalle under Acharya N.G. Ranga University.
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy also approved the government decision in calling for bids for handling the operational maintenance of Krishnapatnam power plant for 25 years to reduce the operational expenditure. The government also provided an option for the Genco employees working in the plant to return to Genco.
The Cabinet gave in-principle approval for the construction of 16 new medical colleges with an expenditure of Rs 7,880 crore and development of the existing medical colleges at a cost of Rs 3,820 crore. It also sanctioned eight additional director of medical education posts along with 78 posts in dispensaries under the Ayush Department.
The Cabinet gave its nod for the launch of EBC Nestam on January 25, where women aged between 45-60 years belonging to unreserved castes will be receiving Rs 15,000 per annum as financial aid. Towards this initiative, the government has identified 3.92 lakh beneficiaries and sanctioned Rs 589 crore.
It also approved a Rs 5,000 crore loan for AP State Civil Supplies Corporation to ease the payment for farmers against crop procurements without delay. The Minister said that the government targeted to procure 50 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, where so far 21.83 lakh metric tonnes have been procured and Rs 2,150 crore has been disbursed to farmers within 21 days.