VIJAYAWADA: In what can be considered as a New Year gift to the people of Kurnool district and neighbouring districts, the trial run of flight services to the newly constructed greenfield airport at Orvakal was successfully held on Monday. The airport will now be thrown open on January 7 by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Kurnool is one of the 50 locations identified by the Centre in 2013 for the development of low-cost airports in order to improve connectivity to remote areas. The works on the airport construction were started in June 2017 and they have been completed within one-and-half years.
The airport is constructed in 960 acres at Orvakal, some 40 kilometres from the Kurnool district headquarters with a cost of Rs 100 crore, officials said.
Officials said with the construction of airport at Orvakal will bring air connectivity to Kurnool as well as adjoining major towns like Nandyal and Kadapa within the State and also towards major towns in neighbouring Karnataka State.
As part of trial run, a small aircraft of Turbo Aviation, which took off from Hyderabad, landed at the airport successfully on Monday. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will inaugurate the airport on January 7, officials said.