Visakhapatnam: Vizag airport is about to get some much needed infrastructural boost as the Airports Authority of India is planning to expand the airport’s arrival and departure terminals. As of now Vizag airport can handle 700 peak-hour passengers and the AAI plans to double the present capacity. The New Integrated Terminal Building (NITB) plan of the AAI also includes increasing the operational efficiency of Vizag airport by adding one more aerobridge, baggage carousels and also increasing the commercial space in the airport. This was mentioned in a letter by AAI, as a reply to a letter sent to it by the Air Travellers Association (India) in August this year.
Further in the letter the AAI said that it does not agree that there is a need for a parallel runway at the Vizag airport as the present volume of traffic does not indicate the necessity of it.
However, they said that as Indian Navy is the operator of Vizag airport, it is the competent authority for examining the feasibility and need for a parallel runway. AAI showed hopes that the length of the existing runway at the airport can be expanded up to 12,500 feet, if a demand for it is raised by any airline and subject to availability of land.
One of the requests of ATA(I) in their letter to the AAI was to convert the old passenger terminal at Vizag airport to an international cargo terminal. However, the AAI in their reply gave half a dozen reasons saying why this request cannot be fulfilled. The reasons included non-bestowing of custodianship of the international cargo terminal department by the Customs department to the AAI and non-payment of dues to the AAI by the existing custodian. On basis of Vizag’s potential export projections the AAI rejected proposals to establish a massive cold storage facility and to create a separate cold storage handling unit. It also rejected the proposal to expand the old apron at Vizag airport saying that immediate expansion is not necessary as the present apron is capable to accommodate two B-747 type aircrafts.
No proposal on apron
AAI also rejected the proposal to expand the old apron at Visak-hapatnam airport saying that immediate expansion is not necessary as the present apron is capable to accommodate two B-747 type aircrafts.
