Singinficantly Ratan Tata and AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu are slated to meet in Hyderabad on Friday when the proposal for the Tatas to take up an airport project in the city is expected to come up during the scheduled hour long discussion.

The subject has already been broached with Tata House by the state government and the indications have been positive and an understanding of some kind could be reached between the two parties on Friday, official sources told The Indian Express.

Though the stated purpose of Ratan Tata's visit is to launch the Tata Cellular coastal Highway corridor, discussions on the airport project are topmost on the two parties' agenda.

Infact the Tata exit from the Bangalore airport project has perhaps come as a blessing for Naidu who has been keen onsetting up an international airport in Hyderabad and an international standard airport at Vizag keeping in line with the growing international stature of the state.

The state government has already identified two sites at Shamshabad south of Hyderabad and Nadargole on the Nagarjunasagar Highway, for the proposed international airport which is expected to cost upto Rs 3500 crore and take 92 months for completition.

Though the chief minister himself is said to be keen on the Shamshabad site, a study team of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which visited the city recently, appears to have preferred the alternative site considering its suitability for the international airport.

Though it is not known which site the state government would pose to the Tatas for taking up, it is however certain the proposal would have to go through the bidding process.

Nevertheless, Ratan Tata himself has been positively disposed towards Hyderabad going by his recent statement that the future belonged to the AP capitalwhere information technology ws concerned while the group itself has a major presence in the state in the form of its two group companies Tata Communications and Tata Teleservices Ltd.

After its experience with Karnataka thanks to both the lacklusture response to its TechnoPark and the treatment meted out by the government to its airport project proposal, the Tata group is not averse to settling for Hyderabad in a bigger way thanks to the proactive role being played by the chief minister, according to corporate sources.