New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Thursday that Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief, Andhra Pradesh laid the foundation for the development of Bhogapuram International Airport on May 3. Further, the statement said, "This airport will be developed as a greenfield airport at an estimated project cost of Rs 4,592 crore for phase 1. The total land area of the airport will be 2,203.26 acres with CAT I enabled runaway spread across 3,800 metres and a cargo terminal in 5,000 square metres."
The airport will be developed in three phases, said the Ministry. Phase 1 will have the capacity to cater to six million passengers per annum (MPPA). Phase 2 of the airport will have the capacity to handle 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA) while the last phase will conclude with a total capacity of 18 MPPA, it added.
"A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the state government on September 12, 2022, wherein it was agreed that the state government 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 six 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," said the statement.
Further, it claimed that the MoU between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airport Developer i.e. GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL) was exchanged on March 10 for reserved services at the airport and the agreement between GVIAL and BCAS was exchanged on April 6.
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