Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that Andhra Pradesh would have seven new airports. The projects are currently in the planning stage.Union civil aviation minister Rammohan Naidu and senior officials of the Airports Authority of India attended a review meeting on the aviation network in the state at the chief minister’s residence. It focussed attention on the construction and expansion of airports, along with the plans for new airports. The chief minister noted that AP has a total of seven civil aviation facilities. The AAI manages the Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Kadapa, Rajahmundry and Gannavaram airports. The Kurnool airport is managed by the state government while the one in Puttaparthi is a private airstrip. In addition to these, work is on for the Bhogapuram International Airport. The CM said, “In view of the increasing needs, the state government has decided to launch 7 more airports. While some of these projects were taken up during the previous Telugu Desam government's tenure, these were kept in cold storage for the past five years.” “The present government has resolved to get them on track again,” he said. Naidu said the new airports will be in Kuppam, Dagadarthy, Srikakulam, Tadepalligudem, Nagarjuna Sagar, Tuni-Annavaram and Ongole. A feasibility report has been prepared for Kuppam Airport. The construction of this airport will be done in two phases. A total of 1,250 acres have already been identified, including 683 acres in the first phase and 567 acres in the second phase, he said. Officials explained that since IAF, HAL and Bangalore International Airports are located nearby, the air space issue also arises. NOC has to be obtained from the relevant authorities. For the Srikakulam airport, the feasibility survey has been completed. It will be built on 1,383 acres in two phases. Land acquisition has started. The work will be undertaken on 680 acres in Phase 1 and 536 acres in Phase 2.