Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will inaugurate the new terminal at Vijayawada airport on January 12. With this value addition, the airport can now seek more facilities like customs clearance and also new parking bays.
Spread over an extent of 12,999 sqm and built at an estimated cost of Rs 128 crore, the terminal will be handed over to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Saturday.
Union minister for Civil Aviation P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju would attend the ceremony, said G. Madhusudana Rao, director, Vijayawada airport. Vijayawada MP Kesineni Sreenivas and Madhusudan Rao examined various works on Monday, and gave suggestions to the contractor.
The general aviation lounge area will be 3,613 sqm, Madhusudan Rao said, adding that this terminal will be purely for domestic operations and will be open for public by February.
The terminal will have handling capacity of 500 air travellers, both arrival and departure, 18 check in counters, two arrival conveyors and one departure conveyor and the terminal is centrally air conditioned.
The ground floor consists of check in area, security hold areas, arrival hall, meet and greet, service stair case and corridor, general aviation lounge, dolly parking and baggage make up area and covered green completely. The first floor of the terminal will have airlines and airport offices, service zone, general aviation lounge and services staircase and corridor, according to the director.
Vijayawada MP Kesineni Sreenivas said the Chief Minister and the Union minister for Civil Aviation put all efforts to get the runway extension works done, along with land acquisition works. International terminal building proposal also will get materialised soon, he said. Zilla parishad former chairman Kadiyala Raghava Rao and Airport general manager Prabhakar Rao accompanied the MP.
Airport: Land acquisition gets tougher
The state government is facing a new problem from the farming community, as land acquisition for Vijayawada airport is becoming difficult day by day. The issue started when the Airports Authority of India (AAI) proposed to extend the length of existing runway by 739 m, which will come to 3,025 m from 2,286 m.
Though farmers came forward to give their consent to give away their land to further extend the runway by 900 m approximately up to Eluru canal, bringing total length to 3,925 m, AAI’s proposal to extend the runway by around 300m to 400m beyond Eluru canal towards south now has become a highly complex issue.
In fact, the state government has examined two alternative proposals for diversion of Eluru canal. In this context, the experts committee has recommended the northern side alignment, which passes through eight villages, and if the same is implemented, the proposed diversion canal divides few villages on the way, at some stretches.
All those eight villages happen to be very near to Vijayawada city and Gannavaram, the farming community is reluctant to surrender their lands under pooling scheme, according to Tadigadapa Veeraiah, a farmer from Gannavaram.
Former minister Vadde Sobhanadrees-wara Rao earlier stated that the necessity for diversion of Eluru canal could be avoided.
It is estimated that due to north side alignment, 423 acres of land have to be acquired, he said and added that the cost of construction including land acquisition cost might come to nearly Rs 1,000 crore. The former minister has suggested this. “The AAI has to re-examine this,” he observed and added that the state government also has to give up the measures that create problems to the farming community.
