Andhra Pradesh Magazine English May 2016 | Page 17

Vijayawada (Gannavaram) Airport is all set to tranform with a new
integrated terminal building complex, and a runway which can handle
even Airbus 380 planes.
complete the land acquisition process at the earliest.

Airport road Beautification completed

The AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA)
received a pat from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu
for completing the beautification works on the road road
from Vijayawada airport at Gannavaram to the core city.
The Chief Minister had, earlier, directed the CRDA officials to beautify the road margins from airport to city by
planting saplings and by improving lighting as the flow
of foreign dignitaries had increased following the announcement of transforming Amaravati into a capital
city.
As per the directions of Chief Minister, the officials
planted saplings on the nine kilometer stretch from Gannavaram to Enikepadu on the road divider, including
flowering plants. The plantation programme was completed on a war-footing basis, after it was started in February last year. The maintenance of the plants was
handed over to Kadiam Agriclinic and Agri business
agency.
The flowering plants were raised in rainbow formation,
providing a visual treat to passers by. The plants including Rapis Humilis, Cycus Rivolta, Vashingonia, Philifera,
Arikapalm, Golden babusa in violet colour, Cycus Rivolta
in Indigo colour, Babusa Valaris and other varieties of
plants are attracting the visitors coming from airport to
Vijayawada city.
Naidu personally inspected the plants while returning
from airport recently and praised the efforts of CRDA officials in developing greenery on road dividers.
He asked the officials to prepare proposals to develop
greenery on road margins and dividers in Vijayawada
Hyderabad road, Gananvaram to Bomuluru in Visakhapatnma route, Ibrahimpatnam to Pullur, Kanaka Durga
varadhi to Timmapuram in Guntur route and in Vijayawada –Machilipatnam route.

Site clearance for 3 Airports

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has given in-principle approval for site clearance for three airports in Andhra
Pradesh this year.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said
'site clearance' was granted in January for greenfield airports at "three locations in Andhra Pradesh namely Dagadarthi Mendal in Nellore, Bhogapuram in
Vizianagaram and Oravakallu in Kurnool.
MAY 2016

According to him, a decision has been taken to close the
existing Vishakapatnam airport for civilian operations
once the new airport at Bhogapuram becomes operational.
runway extension works could be started immediately.
The Airports Authority of India has already sanctioned
Rs.145 crore for the same.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation had approved the construction of three greenfield airports in Andhra Pradesh
last year. Bhogapuram, a town around 40 kilometre from
Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Nellore will host these airports.

AP airports fare better

Meanwhile, all the four operational airports in Andhra
Pradesh have registered an improvement in customer
satisfaction index as per the survey conducted by the
Airports Authority of India (AAI) during the July-December 2015 period. The Visakhapatnam airport has been
ranked 14 out of 49 airports, whereas Rajahmundry is
ranked 33, Tirupati is at 37 and Vijayawada is ranked at
40.
As per the survey, the customer satisfaction index rated
on a scale of five points has also shown that the
Visakhaaptnam airport has registered the second best
performance after Dibrugarh airport during the second
half of 2015. The city airport, which had registered 4.20
points out of 5 in the first half of 2015, scored 4.59 in the
second half of the same year.
Rajahmundry scored 4.16 (as against 4.08 in the first
half of 2015), Tirupati 4.09 (as against 3.74 in the first
half of 2015) and Vijayawada 4.03 (as against 3.79 in the
first half of 2015).

Increased Traffic

Airports in AP have seen traffic growth of 59 per cent in
2015-16 compared to the national average of 17 per
cent. The highest number of passengers was from
Visakhapatnam followed by Vijayawada and Tirupati
while Rajahmundry stood fourth.
Out of the four airports in AP, Vizag had the highest
number of flyers for 2015-16. Vijayawada saw a tremendous increase in year-on-year traffic growth rate. The
annual growth at Vijayawada was 78 per cent; for
Visakhapatnam it was 61 per cent. Tirupati despite
being a tourist and religious spot showed growth of 49
percent and Rahamundry, 37 per cent.

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