Modernisation of the existing Visakhapatnam International Airport should be the first priority of the Andhra Pradesh government as the proposed Greenfield Airport plan could take a long time for completion, feels former MP and GITAM University president M.V.V.S. Murthi.
The former MP has submitted a detailed report to the Chief Minister during his visit to the city and underlined the need to take immediate steps to modernise the airport.
Runway lengthMr. Murthi has suggested increasing the length of the runway by another 1,000 feet from the existing 10,500 feet and trebling the capacity of the terminal building from the present 20,000 sq. m. to handle the growing traffic. He has felt that increasing the length of the runway would facilitate landing of wide-bodied aircraft easily. He has also sought increase in the number of aerobridges to 12 to handle international traffic on par with the best in India in a moderate way till the implementation of the Greenfield airport for Visakhapatnam.
The former MP has expressed the view that the control of the airport should be taken from the Indian Navy and handed over to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) so that it could complete the modernisation works in a short span of two years. This will also contribute to the State government’s new investment policy as it will attract more investors from various countries to Visakhapatnam.
