Bhogapuram Airport Becomes Battleground

Claiming that the credit for Bhogapuram greenfield international airport goes to former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MPs Tanuja Rani and Gurumoorthy on Tuesday accused the current Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu of reducing governance to "credit theft" by claiming the airport as his achievement.

Tanuja Rani said Union Minister Pemmasani Chandrasekhar was speaking irresponsibly merely because he had wealth and a Ministerial position. He was in the US when the then Jagan Mohan Reddy-led state government executed the Bhogapuram works and therefore had no moral right to distort the project's history.

She challenged the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for a debate in the Parliament, saying that YSRCP would present every official record.

Even TDP leaders admit that 86 per cent of the airport works were completed during Jagan Mohan Reddy's tenure as the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

She also questioned the Rs 300 crore spent on International Yoga events and asked what benefit such publicity and Guinness records had brought to tribal communities.

Gurumoorthy said the runway was built under the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led state government, while TDP leaders were now cutting ribbons and claiming credit.

"Land acquisition, compensation, statutory approvals and removal of legal hurdles were completed under former Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, with the airport made possible through the sacrifices of farmers. Government records would continue to prove this, irrespective of TDP's publicity," he added.

The YSRCP MP said the TDP government had not completed land acquisition by 2019.

"After YSRCP came to power in the state, land was acquired, farmers were compensated and the project moved forward with GMR in 2023. Farmers and fishermen had approached courts because the previous TDP government proposed acquiring 15,000 acres, creating fear over its land hunger. Those cases were cleared by 2022."

He said that when even London's Heathrow airport operates on about 3,000 acres, Jagan Mohan Reddy only asked why Bhogapuram airport required 15,000 acres.

The project was rationalised to around 2,700 acres and all land hurdles were removed, he added.

Gurumoorthy also demanded action on rising airfares, declining passenger growth and excessive fares burdening Tirupati pilgrims.