New Drone Port in Hyd, new airport in Kothagudem–Bhadrachalam

Hyderabad: A new Drone Port is coming up in Hyderabad soon. The State government was also planning to establish airport surroundings of the Kothagudem and Bhadrachalam areas and renovate the Waranga airport.

Telangana State Aviation Academy on Wednesday signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) to provide advanced training for drone pilots.

Telangana Aviation Academy CEO SN Reddy and NRSC Director Prakash Chauhan signed the agreement in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, and ISRO Chairman S Somanath in the Secretariat on Wednesday. The State Chief Secretary Santhi Mumari, R&B Secretary Srinivasaraj, NRSC Deputy Director Murali Krishna, and other officials were also present.

As part of the agreement, training on drone piloting, drone data management, and data analysis will be provided. A 15-day training course on data analysis, data processing, and mapping will be conducted for NRSC scientists and drone pilots in the academy. The Aviation Academy officials requested the CM to allocate land for developing an exclusive facility to provide training for the drone pilots in Hyderabad. The academy officials also brought to the notice of the CM the inconvenience of providing training at the Hyderabad airport due to increasing air traffic. In a quick response, he instructed the officials to identify 20 acres of land required for the establishment of a Drone Port at the Pharma City. The CM suggested allocating the land in the no-objection zone as per aviation regulations in the vicinity of Hyderabad.

Revanth Reddy ordered the officials to take appropriate measures for the renovation of Warangal airport. The officials were suggested to look into the feasibility of constructing the damaged old runways and launching commercial operations from there. The officials have also been asked to resolve the other obstacles, if any. The CM asked the officials to consult the airport authority to establish an airport in the surroundings of Kothagudem and Bhadrachalam areas, which is considered feasible to develop an airfield.