Vijayawada: Gannavaram Airport has been moving towards transforming itself into an International Airport. After three-and-a-half years, the prominence given by the government did not yield fruitful results. There was only one positive aspect, i.e. increase of traffic. By February end, the Migration chamber will start functioning and by March-end or April, the International flights will start from this airport. Before the division of the state, the traffic in the Gannavaram Airport was 2 lakh passengers per annum. After three-and-a-half years, it has increased to 8 lakhs per annum, which is a considerable growth, but not up to expectations.
From January 19 onwards, Air India is going to start its flights to Mumbai from the Gannavaram Airport. From March onwards, Indigo is going to start services from this airport.
From mid-2017 only, the speed of Capital growth has been accelerated. SRM, VIT Universities have started their activities in Amaravati. IT companies have started in the well-populated Medha Towers. The real estate ventures have been boosted this year. New ventures are also coming up in this year, 2018. The representations to the state government from foreign companies have increased recently. South Korea, Singapore companies’ representatives have made many more visits in the last one year. All these will boost the traffic of the Airport.
Now, the software engineers from this area have to travel from Hyderabad to their destinations abroad. The people who want to visit Hyderabad frequently or on business are preferring to travel from Gannavaram. Even foreign delegates have often reached Visakhapatnam and then Gannavaram. Mr Madhusudhan Rao, director, Vijayawada Airport, said, “All the formalities have been done for the functioning of the immigration centre here. By February end, the immigration centre will start. Later, the operators will apply for the services, it will take one or two months, so by April, the international flight services may start. And we are arranging all the facilities according to that”.
