Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to lay foundation stone for Greenfield International Airport

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will lay the foundation stone for the Greenfield International Airport at Bhogapuram after the Sankranti festival.
Earlier, the state government planned to lay the foundation stone by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as AP Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) had already sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s office last month.
Following the AP high court dismissal of a batch of petitions filed by 32 farmers from Kancheru challenging the land acquisition for the greenfield project, the state government has decided to lay the foundation stone in the new year.
It is recalled that the project was awarded to GMR Group and an MoU was also signed between the AP government and GMR under PPP mode.
The proposed airport is located 40km from Vizag and 25km from Vizianagaram.
The first phase of the airport project is expected to involve an investment of Rs 2,300 crore.
The Jagan government expects that once the foundation stone is laid for the project, the deadline will be set to complete the first phase by December 2024. It is expected to handle 6.3 million passengers per annum in the first phase and would handle 18 million passengers after the completion of the second phase of construction.
The state industries and IT minister Gudivada Amaranth said that the project had got environmental clearances and the court judgment had also cleared the land acquisition hurdles. GMR group would begin the work after the foundation stone is laid.
The airport project will have commercial aircraft rpron, passenger terminal building, ATC and technical building, cargo building, sewage treatment plant (STP), a main approach road from NH 16 to airport, commercial approach road, commercial development area, solar panels area, aviation academy, and maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) facility.