The Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (APCCIF) has appealed to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to provide connectivity from Vijayawada (Gannavaram) airport to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Pune and Aurangabad to make it convenient for a sizeable population which travels to those cities from the Andhra Pradesh Capital region, to reach those destinations.
The AAI would also do well to take urgent steps for providing connectivity to Dubai/ Abu Dhabi, Singapore/Malaysia, Australia, Bangkok and London/Amsterdam to cater to the requirements of the huge NRI population of this region that has settled down in U.S.A, Europe, Australia and the Middle East.
APCCIF Executive Director P. Bhaskar Rao has in a letter to the Executive Director (Marketing) of AAI stated that population of the Capital city was likely to grow to three million by 2020 from the present 1.5 million and fortunately cities like Guntur with about 0.5 million population and towns like Eluru, Gudivada, Machilipatnam, Tenali, Mangalagiri, Bhimavaram and Nuzvid with a total population of another million are in a close range of 60 to 70 kilometres from the airport.
It was estimated that around 0.5 million NRIs from Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and East and West Godavari districts were living in North America, Middle East and other countries and up to 40,000 students from the region go for higher studies abroad every year.
Better air connectivity to those countries would be beneficial for people in the Capital region of A.P and for rapid growth of the State.
Since good air connectivity is not available from Vijayawada at present, hundreds of passengers are reaching Hyderabad airport daily by train and road for flying to other destinations. Passenger traffic has already gone up substantially at Vijayawada airport in the past six months and most of the flights are running with full capacities and on many occasions they are overbooked. The airport has connectivity to New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai but other Indian cities and foreign destinations remained inaccessible by air for people in region. The AAI should therefore look into the proposals and take necessary action to help Vijayawada airport played a catalytic role in development of the State, Mr. Bhaskar Rao added.
