Vizag as executive capital may tilt the scales in favour of Bhogapuram airport

Visakhapatnam: The proposal to set up the executive capital of the state at Vizag has opened up the possibility of the Union government clearing the decks for construction of a greenfield airport at Bhogapuram.
On January 3, responding to a query by Congress MP T Subbarami Reddy on commencement of works at Bhogapuram airport, minister of civil aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, said, “We are in a position to facilitate this as and when it is ready.”
Officials of the Andhra Pradesh Airports Development Corporation Limited (APADCL) have viewed the minister’s statement as an indication of the viability of the project.“In all probability now, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will stick to their earlier assurance of closing Visakhapatnam airport for 30 years once Bhogapuram airport becomes operational. The project would otherwise not be viable,” said Virender Singh, managing director and CEO of APADCL to TOI.
Construction of the airport has been mired in controversy since December 2015 when the AAI had given a written assurance to the previous TDP-led government that Visakhapatnam airport would be closed for 30 years once the airport at Bhogapuram became operational. However, after the TDP pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in March 2018, the APADCL anticipated hurdles in the project and in December 2018, former minister of state for civil aviation, Jayant Sinha, ruled out the closure of Visakhapatnam airport, stating that the AAI had already spent crores to develop infrastructure at the airport.
A report carried in TOI on May 17, 2019 stated that the APADCL had proposed compensating AAI for the money spent on developing infrastructure at Visakhapatnam airport. Although the AAI had not responded to the proposal, the APADCL had pegged compensation amount at Rs 40 crore. AAI officials had said there was no reason to shut the airport given the rising number of passengers in the paste few years. The APADCL had already spent Rs 800 crore out of the Rs 24,020 crore meant for the project at the time.
“With the recent statement made by the civil aviation minister, we are hopeful that the decks for Bhogapuram airport will be cleared soon. The airport will be useful if Vizag becomes the executive capital of the state,” said a senior APADCL official to TOI.