VIJAYAWADA: Structural and basement designs of the domestic and international integrated terminal building of Vijayawada Airport at Gannavaram are underway.Recently, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has entrusted the task of constructing the works estimated at Rs 613 crore to the bidder, New Delhi-based NKG Infrastructure Limited.
Of the total project cost, Rs 470 crore will be spent on the new terminal building, Rs 27 crore on developing apron, Rs 60 crore on erecting an Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower and the remaining Rs 54 crore for constructing aero bridges and improving other facilities.
In April, the Union Finance Ministry’s Public Investment Board approved the State government’s proposal to construct an integrated terminal at the Vijayawada airport. The Centre has given pace to the tendering process and NKG Infrastructure Ltd will ready the structural and basement designs by January 2021.
It may be noted that in 2018, Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu performed the bhoomi puja for the new terminal building spread over an area of 31,000 square metres. The terminal building will precast steel and glass on the lines of Surat, Varanasi and Prayagraj airports. Airport director G Madhusudhana Rao told The New Indian Express that passenger traffic at the airport has increased in the past few years. In view of this, the AAI has decided to develop an integrated terminal here with world-class facilities.
As per plans, the new terminal building will accommodate 400 foreign and 800 domestic passengers at a time. Other facilities include 24 check-in counters, six aero bridges, 14 immigration and four custom counters, 24X7 CCTV monitoring cell, Madhusudhana Rao added.
Decks have also been cleared for the new apron works. JKG Infratech Private Limited will take up the works at an estimated cost of Rs 27.5 crore. Once the apron link taxiway works are completed, they can park large aircraft such as Boeing 777 and 747.
The airport director said that so far, the passengers are being ferried to the terminal building by a bus. As per the plans, the apron will be connected to the terminal building so that the passengers will directly enter the airport terminal from the parking bay. The airport has six parking bays.
With 10 more being developed, the airport will have a total of 16 parking bays. Six more parking bays will be developed as part of the proposed works.