VISAKHAPATNAM: The Rs. 95 crore new integrated airport terminal building with night landing facilities in Visakhapatnam will be ready for commissioning any time next month.
Except minor works, all important works had been completed.
Flooding, specially during rainy season, had been a major problem and the Irrigation and Command Areas Development Department, which had been entrusted the airport protection works, had nearly completed the main work of digging two channels viz., Meghadrigedda channel and Kondagedda channel, for free flow of water into the sea.
The new terminal building with a capacity to handle 700 passengers an hour and parking place for 600 vehicles would have 20 counters for airlines. Way back, the Union Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel had announced that the new terminal complex would be commissioned by December 2008 but somehow it got delayed. A number of businessmen, including foreign businessmen, industrialists, leisure travellers travel from Visakhapatnam and according to the Air Travellers Association (India), the average number of passengers that travel from Visakhapatnam every year is about six lakhs and of them nearly 60 per cent travel to overseas destinations like Australia, US, European countries, Japan, Singapore, China etc., and use Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai airports for their travel.
Opportunities
Visakhapatnam airport with the new terminal complex will offer abundant opportunities to airlines to operate direct services to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Colombo, Dubai, London, Frankfurt and other places and hence the ATA wants all international Airlines to operate their services from Visakhapatnam. President of ATA D. Varada Reddy appealed to Air India to extend their overseas-bound flights from Hyderabad and Mumbai to Vizag.
Rajya Sabha Member T. Subbarami Reddy, meanwhile, urged authorities concerned to initiate steps for providing additional manpower required for extending operations beyond 8 p.m. at the airport.
At present, the operations are allowed between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. According to the Airport Director C. Pattabhi, two airlines viz., Silk Airways and Sri Lanka Airways showed interest in running direct services from Visakhapatnam airport. One had already set up a counter. On the passenger traffic, he said that it had been steadily increasing.
The number of travellers in Dec. was about 52,500 as against 43,000 the previous month. He was confident of achieving the annual target of 6 lakh travellers.