Greenfield airport at Bhogapuram opposed

Visakhapatnam: Air Travellers Association of India (ATA) wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and stop wasteful expenditure by the state government on building a Greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram instead of developing the existing airport. Approvals, if any, given so far may kindly be withdrawn so that precious land can be saved wrote ATA (I) president D. Varada Reddy wrote in the letter.

He said that the policy of Government of India regarding Greenfield airports need to be redefined. Constructing Greenfield airports would become a requiem for metro cities where the passenger strength per annum crosses two crores.

“Greenfield airports in metro cities also help clear congestion and overcrowding of roads and airports. If however the non- metro cities also aspire for these airports, without any basic data, it leads to unnecessary expenditure besides redundancy.

People in this region are questioning the necessity of such a Greenfield airport in Bhogapuram. Ninety eight per cent air passengers whom ATA (I) has surveyed, categorically said 'no' to such an airport at Bhogapuram. The AP government wants to spend Rs 2,516 crore at a time when the state coffers are empty and the Chief Minister of AP keeps talking endlessly about the financial crisis post bifurcation of the state,” he added.

He also said that a case in example is the construction of a swanky new airport in Shamshabad when the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad has yet to attain its full potential. The result is that Shamshabad airport is making compulsory the User Development Fee (UDF) on the passengers supported by Ministry of Civil Aviation and it is not the fault of passengers if Shamshabad airport is making a loss.

It is the over enthusiasm on the part of successive Governments of combined AP during 2002-2006, that resulted in an uneconomical airport," he added. Mr Reddy further said the same misplaced enthusiasm is bestowed on Visakhapatnam airport which was expanded recently as 2009 and a large amount was spent during IFR and post Hudhud.

A Greenfield airport is being planned by the bankrupt state of AP at Bhogapuram while the ever increasing passenger traffic at Visakhapatnam airport is peaking. If expanded it will cater to at least 70 lakh passengers in the future years. The airport at Bhogapuram is ill conceived, badly planned and the farmers are refusing to part with their precious land which forms food security for them.