The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) has finally agreed to keep INS Dega (Visakhapatnam Airport) open round-the-clock for five days in a week for civil aviation from November 1 and the facility will be made a 24/7 affair from January 1, 2014.
Union minister of state for commerce and industry Daggubati Purandeswari announced here Wednesday that chief of ENC Vice Admiral Anil Chopra had confirmed to her about the new arrangement at the airport.
Presently, the ENC was allowing civil aviation operations only three days in a week up to 11 pm.
Purandeswari wrote a letter to the Chief of ENC Anil Chopra on September 13, explaining the need for round-the-clock flight operations from the Port City. She urged him to consider the long-pending demand of the people of five districts.
Purandeswari told the Vice-Admiral that Indigo, SpiceJet, and Air Arabia had already expressed their intention to launch late night domestic and international flights from the Visakhapatnam Airport.
Speaking to the media, Purandeswari expressed the hope that the latest announcement of the Navy would encourage more international flight carriers to come to Visakhapatnam thereby bringing more investments into the region.