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GMR Airports Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, said it has received the Letter of Award for the development and operation of a greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh.
GBS Raju, Business Chairman GMR Airports said, “We are partnering with Government of Andhra Pradesh to develop, operate and manage the prestigious Bhogapuram International Airport. We are excited about the potential of this region.”
The project, about 45 km from Visakhapatnam, involves design, build, finance, construction, development, up-gradation, modernisation, operation and maintenance of an international airport at Bhogapuram for 40 years, extendable by additional 20 years through international competitive bidding with GMR Airports getting right of first refusal.
During 2019, the existing civil enclave at Vishakapatnam Naval Airfield had handled 2.78 million passengers and about 4,400 tonnes of cargo. Over the past 5 years the passenger traffic at the airport has grown at 21 per cent compounded annual growth rate and the airport ranks fifth amongst the custom airports in India in terms of cargo traffic.
The proposed greenfield airport site lies on the border of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, on NH-5 and 25 km from Vizianagaram via NH-43.
The site on the east coast stands to benefit with the beach corridor development underway in proximity which will provide impetus to retail and hospitality developments in the region.
In February 2019, GAL had emerged as the highest bidder for project to be taken up on a PPP (public, private partnership) mode with a revenue share approach.
The development of the airport assumes importance with the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government keen on developing Visakhapatnam as the executive capital of the State.
Significantly, this is the only major bid awarded during the previous TDP-led regime that has survived.
GMR has developed both Delhi and Hyderabad international airports and is engaged with the development of several other airport projects including the airports at Goa, Bidar, Nagpur in India and couple of other projects in Greece and The Philippines. It was earlier engaged with development of an airport in Turkey.
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