The Andhra Pradesh government has signed a concession agreement with the SCL-Turbo consortium for the development of a greenfield airport in Dagadarthi, in Nellore district. The Managing Director of the Nellore International Airport Private Ltd (NIAL) consortium, Vankayapati Umesh, signed an agreement with Principal Secretary Ajay Jain of the Energy, Infrastructure & Investments Department and Andhra Pradesh Airport Development Corporation (APADCL) Managing Director M. Venkateswarlu. Dagadarthi Airport is expected to be located around 25 km from Nellore town and commercial operations might start from January 2020. Developed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, the airport will span 1,352 acres of land and cost around INR 3.68 billion. It will have a capacity to handle 1.9 million passengers and 55,000 tonnes of cargo per year. "The new airport will be a catalyst for development of tourism and industry in the SPS Nellore district. It will be a cargo export and import hub for the many industrial units in the district. Commercial operations are expected to start in January 2020 from Dagadarthi," Jain said in a statement. The demand for development in the area has been a long pending one. In May 2017, the Central Government granted international status to the existing Vijayawada Airport (VGA). The decision to upgrade its status under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014 was taken by the Union Cabinet, whose meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The proposal will add to improved connectivity to the State capital," the Union Cabinet said in a statement. "It will provide a wider choice of services at competitive costs to the air travellers and give a boost to domestic/international tourism and socio-economic development of Andhra Pradesh by bringing in international passengers and cargo traffic," the statement added. #1080.10 

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