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The Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district is set to be inaugurated on August 1 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Built at a cost of nearly Rs 4,727 crore in 31 months, the airport is now ready to commence commercial operations.
The Union government had granted 'in principle' approval to the Bhogapuram International Airport Corporation Limited (BIACL) for setting up the Bhogapuram International Greenfield Airport for public use in October 2016, when the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was in power.
In 2023, former Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy laid the foundation stone for the airport.
The airport has been designed to handle 6 million passengers annually in the first phase. This capacity is planned to go up to 12 million and 18 million passengers per annum in subsequent phases.
The airport has been developed by GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL) under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model using the Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) framework. The entire project spans over 2,700 acres.
The Andhra Pradesh government itself has invested Rs 1,583 crore towards enabling infrastructure, including Rs 944 crore for land acquisition, Rs 75 crore for water supply, etc.
The airport has a cargo terminal with an annual capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes, which can boost north Andhra's export ecosystem, the government has said. This includes temperature-controlled cold chain facilities for transporting pharmaceuticals, marine products and other high-value perishable goods.
The Union government had approved the Bhogapuram airport proposal on the condition that commercial operations are stopped for 30 years at the existing Visakhapatnam airport about 60 km away, which has been operating as a civil enclave at a naval airbase.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that the Visakhapatnam airport be retained as a domestic airport even after the Bhogapuram International Airport commences operations.
