The Defence Ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have appointed nodal officers to coordinate the development of the proposed joint-user airport (JUA) at Adilabad, Telangana, marking a significant administrative step toward getting the long-awaited project off the ground. The appointments were communicated separately to Telangana Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju.

Who Has Been Appointed

The Defence Ministry has named two officers for the role: Air Commodore Rahul Shukla, Commandant of Air Force Station Begumpet, and Group Captain Jyoti Prakash Sabharwal, Command Air Traffic Control Officer (CATCO) at Headquarters Training Command, Bengaluru. The AAI has appointed its Executive Director (Architecture), Sujoy Dey, as the nodal officer responsible for liaison with the Telangana state government.

What the Airport Will Include

Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy outlined the scope of the project in a post on X (formerly Twitter). On the defence side, the Ministry of Defence will build infrastructure including trainer aircraft dispersals, visiting aircraft parking bays, weather shelters, aircraft hangars, an operational complex, training facilities, and maintenance infrastructure.

On the civilian side, the AAI will develop a Civil Terminal and a Maintenance and Repair Operations (MRO) facility. Additionally, residential and support infrastructure for defence personnel — including single and married quarters, sports and recreational facilities, and dedicated engineering utilities such as water supply and sanitation — will also need to be developed, according to Kishan Reddy.

Scale and Site of the Project

The joint-use airport is planned across 1,500 acres at Adilabad and will serve both defence and civilian aviation purposes. The airport is intended to house an Air Force training centre alongside civil aviation infrastructure, making it a dual-purpose facility of strategic and regional significance for Telangana.

Political Coordination and Next Steps

Kishan Reddy noted that he, along with other Union ministers and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, had held discussions on establishing the airport. He urged the Telangana government to appoint its own nodal officer at the earliest to ensure smooth multi-stakeholder coordination and to expedite the project's execution. The appointment of state-level counterparts is seen as the immediate next milestone before construction timelines can be firmed up.

This comes amid the broader push to develop underdeveloped districts in Telangana with strategic infrastructure, with Adilabad — a predominantly tribal region — standing to benefit significantly from improved connectivity and employment prospects tied to the project.