Opening of new Hyderabad airport to be delayed

NEW DELHI: The opening of the new international airport in Hyderabad to air traffic would be delayed by a few days from scheduled March 16 due to "operational" reasons, a civil aviation ministry official said on Friday.
 
The new date will be notified soon, the official said.
    
The airport, which was inaugurated by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday, was scheduled to be functional from March 16.

Meanwhile, in a statement the GMR Group which has built the greenfield airport at Shamsabad claimed that the airport was "ready in all aspects".
    
It said, some airlines had approached the Civil Aviation Ministry "seeking more time to begin operations" from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
    
"Acceding to their requests, the Ministry has advised us to begin operations in a few days. We will intimate the new date and will commence operations soon," GMR said.