Centre has to decide on Begumpet airport: HC
HYDERABAD: The High Court at Hyderabad (Common HC for the states of Telangana and AP) left it to the central government to decide the fate of the Begumpet airport.
A division bench comprising chief justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and justice PV Sanjay Kumar was dealing with a petition filed by BV Papa Rao of Hyderabad who wanted the Begumpet airport to be used as a base for domestic flights rather than allowing it to be closed for the sake of Shamshabad airport.
The bench has declined to issue any direction to the Centre in this regard. It was a political decision, the bench said. Assistant solicitor-general P Vishnuvardhan Reddy told the court that a policy decision was taken to close down the old airport in view of the new international airport set up at Shamshabad.
Senior counsel D Prakash Reddy, appearing for the petitioner, brought to the notice of the court that though the closure decision had been taken six years ago, the airport was not yet closed.
Instead of incurring huge maintenance costs without actually using it, it would be prudent if the terminal was used as a domestic airport since Begumpet lies at the centre of the city and is a commercial hub, he added.
Disagreeing with this, the ASG said that only commercial operations were closed at this airport and several government operations were still going on.
News Posted: 3 June, 2014
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