The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri Jagan Mohan Reddy laid the foundation stone for the development of Bhogapuram International Airport on 3rd May 2023.
The project will be developed in three phases:
1st phase – Will be developed to serve 6 million passengers per annum (MPPA)
2nd phase – The capacity will be increased up to 12 MPPA
3rd phase – The development will conclude with a total capacity of 18 MPPA
This airport will be developed as a Greenfield airport and has an estimated project cost of Rs. 4592 crore for phase 1. The total land area of the airport will be 2203.26 acres with CAT I enabled runaway spread across 3800 meters and a cargo terminal in 5000 sq meters.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Government of Andhra Pradesh on 12.09.2022, wherein it was agreed that the State Govt. will mutate the entire Airport land in the name of AAI without charging any stamp duty or mutation charges or any other charges or fee within 06 months from the date of signing of MoU, and Civil Enclave at Visakhapatnam (INS Dega) would be closed for 30 years from the date of commencement of operations of Bhogapuram Airport.
The MoU between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airport Developer i.e. GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL) was exchanged on 10.03.2023 for reserved services at the airport and The Agreement between GVIAL and BCAS was exchanged on 06.04.2023.
The airport would become a growth engine for the development of the state and play a key role in the rise of tourism in the Northern Andhra region.