Bhogapuram Airport to be Operational by December 2025: Gudivada

Visakhapatnam: The first flight at Bhogapuram International Airport in Vizianagaram district will land in December 2025, said AP industries minister Gudivada Amarnath on Saturday. The minister, along with Deputy Chief Minister Budi Mutyala Naidu, regional YSRC coordinator Y.V. Subba Reddy and MLAs Tippala Nagi Reddy, A. Adeep Raj, U.V. Ramana Murthy, Golla Babu Rao and Petla Umashankar Ganesh visited the airport on Saturday to assess the progress of work.

The airport is being developed in a public private partnership model on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. GMR Group, which has been allotted the Bhogapuram International Airport, has appointed L&T to execute the works. Amarnath said their team found 300 heavy machines and people working simultaneously on the 3.8 km runway, terminal buildings and approach roads.

He recalled that when GMR group head G. Mallikarjuna Rao announced during the foundation stone laying ceremony that it would take 36 months to complete the project, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy told him to reduce the time to 30 months. Rao immediately agreed and assured the CM that he would try to bring the first flight to Bhogapuram in December 2025. It is expected that the airport will accelerate promotion of tourism in north Andhra. State government will receive substantial revenues of Rs 310 per domestic passenger and Rs 606 per international passenger from the 11th year of the airport’s operation. The airport will further give impetus to growth of industries and service sector in the region.