VIJAYAWADA: The new interim terminal building at Vijayawada airport in Gannavaram will be completed by the end of December, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced in a meeting with airline operators at his office here on Tuesday.
As per the agreement with Simplex Infrastructures Limited executing the project from October 2015, the new terminal was to be completed by January 2017. Now, it looks like it will be completed one month ahead of schedule.
The new terminal building being constructed at the cost of Rs 135 crore will have 1,300 sq mts of plinth area and can accommodate 500 people during peak time. As per the half-year report, the airport had made significant progress in both air traffic and passenger footfall. Compared to 2015-16, in the first six months of the current fiscal, there has been 72 percent growth in passenger traffic and 78 percent growth in aircraft movement.
During the Krishna Pushkarams festival a couple of months ago, the region saw an increase in air traffic. The higher demand has led to airline operators wanting more operations. At present five airline operators are operating in the airport and two more airline operators are on the cards to start their operations in the next few months.
The Chief Minister called upon airlines operators to help increase the air passenger footfall in
the State and make Andhra Pradesh an aviation hub. He wanted them to participate in the bidding with regard to air connectivity to be called by the central government shortly.
He requested the airline operators to increase the air connectivity between Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada -Hyderabad, Vijayawada-Tirupati, Vijayawada-Kadapa. He welcomed the suggestion of the airline operators for affordable transport from the airport to the nearest towns and cities.
Naidu said that healthy competition among the airline operators will benefit the people, who can avail travel packages with attractive prices and it will also help in the growth of tourism. On the occasion, he stressed the need for promoting heli-tourism in the state and using airports as the base for the heli tour operations.
He also suggested that the airline operators include temple tourist and beach tourist sites of the states in their tour packages, while explaining about the tourism potential of various tourist places in the state. On the occasion, he said there will be incentives and subsidies to various airlines.
Representatives of Air India, Air Asia, Indigo, Jet Airways, Truejet, Spicejet, Aircosta, Alliance Air, Silk Air attended the meeting.