The development work of the upcoming greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram will gather pace as the land acquisition has been completed. “We have just completed the entire land acquisition for the airport along with the preparations for the people’s rehabilitation in four villages,’‘ K Mayur Ashok, Joint Collector, Vizianagaram told businessline. 

A little over 2,200 acres  was acquired for the upcoming airport at at Bhogapuram located on the Srikakulam-Vizianagaram-Srikakulam stretch. It lies on the border of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, and is approximately 45 km from Visakhapatnam city and 25 km from Vizianagaram.

While about 2,083 acres were acquired by the district administration a few months back, it faced a few legal issues for nearly 120 acres. “Now all this has been resolved and our job of acquiring land has been completed, Ashok said.

The residential colonies with all civic infrastructure and pucca houses are ready to rehabilitate those affected. “They will relocate anytime now as the festival days have also ended,’‘ the official said. 

The colonies were constructed in Gudepuvalasa and Polipalli as `model residential locations’ with best civic infrastructure such as internal roads, parks, hospitals, community halls and others.

When asked about the timelines for the new airport, the Joint Collector said it was for the Government and the GMR group which is the concessionar, GMR, to take the things forward. “What I can say is that our job has been done at the district administration level,’‘ Ashok said. 

GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL), a subsidiary of GMR Airports Limited (GAL), is developing the project in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

GVIAL would develop the airport in stages initially, to service about 6 million passengers per annum and would be scaled up on passenger growth. The airport will offer services catering to the domestic and international travel besides cargo, according to GMR.