First Phase Of Development Of Bhogapuram International Greenfield Airport In Andhra Set In Motion

Aiming to play a key role in the rise of tourism in the Northern Andhra region, Bhogapuram International Airport, a greenfield venture, will be developed in the state to serve six million passengers a year.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy laid the foundation stone on 3 May for the development of the greenfield airport in in three phases.In the first phase, the airport will be developed to serve 6 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and the second phase, the capacity will be increased up to 12 MPPA.

The development will conclude with a total capacity of 18 MPPA in the third phase.The airport will be developed as a greenfield airport and has an estimated project cost of Rs 4,592 crore for phase 1. The total land area of the airport will be 2203.26 acres with CAT-I enabled runaway spread across 3,800 m and a cargo terminal in 5,000 sq m.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Government of Andhra Pradesh on 12 September 2022, wherein it was agreed that the State government will mutate the entire Airport land in the name of AAI without charging any stamp duty or mutation charges or any other charges or fee within six months from the date of signing of MoU, and Civil Enclave at Visakhapatnam (INS Dega) would be closed for 30 years from the date of commencement of operations of Bhogapuram Airport.

The MoU between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL) was signed 10 March 2023. An agreement between GVIAL and BCAS was also signed on 6 April 2023.

The airport would become a growth engine for the development of the state and play a key role in the rise of tourism in the Northern Andhra region.