Cabinet nod for upgradation of Renigunta Airport

Tirupati, Oct 4 (UNI) Member of Parliament from Tirupati Chinta Mohan today said the Union Cabinet has approved the upgradation of Renigunta Airport into an international airport.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Mohan said the upgradation would provide further impetus to the tourism and economic activity in the Tirupati region. It would facilitate direct connectivity with the rest of the world to cater to the needs of the overseas pilgrims.

He said 75,000 pilgrims were visiting Tirupati daily. At present nearly 1.7 lakh pilgrims of non-resident Indians, people of Indian origin and foreigners were visiting Tirupati annually by touching international airports at Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Once the airport was upgrated to an international standard, the total number of tourists was expected to reach three lakh, he added.

For the upgradation project, Rs 500 crore would be spent in the first phase while total cost was expected to reach Rs 1000 crore, he said.

As a part of further upgradation of logistics in the airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has proposed to construct a new integrated terminal building to handle 700 passengers at a time, both international and domestic, Mr Mohan said adding this was against its present capacity of 300 passengers at a time.

The proposed major projects of upgradation of Tirupati Railway station, heritage corridors, tourism centre, six lane road project between Tirupati-Chennai and four lane between Tirupati-Bangalore were interlinked for promotion of tourism and economic activity in the temple region, he said.

The goverernment's proposal to develop a long tourist-corridor connecting 17 unique temples located in and around Tirupati would come handy for giving an international tag to the Tirupati airport, he added.

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