27.9.16

3 AP airports get Centre's nod

In a major boost to the development of airports in Andhra Pradesh, the Centre gave `in principle' clearance for three major airports -Bhogapuram in Vizianagram, Dhagadarthi in Nellore and Orvakal in Kurnool district.
The Bhogapuram International Airport, a greenfield project, is to come up in Vizianagaram district and would be located about 40 kilometres north-east of Visakhapatnam. The airport project will come up on 5,311 acres in and around Bhogapuram. It will be built by the Bhogapuram International Airport Company Limited (BIACL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by the government.The project will be taken up in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, with the state having the stake in the form of land holdings.Out of the 2,800 acres land acquisition, consent or permission has been received for 2,000 acres.
Along with the Bhogapuram airport, BIACL will also develop the Nellore and Orvakal airports under the low-cost airport model.Tenders have been floated for selection of developers for these three airports and are under the finalisation process, stated AP Infrastructure and Investments secretary Ajay Jain.
According to a press release by the infrastructure and investments department, the government of India gave the `in-principle' clearances for the three airports after Ajay Jain made a Power Point presentation at a high-level meeting in New Delhi on Monday that was attended by officials of seven key departments, including the ministry of civil aviation, ministry of environment and forests, ministry of home affairs and ministry of economic affairs. In the presentation, Jain spoke on the need for providing clearance to these airports and specified that the air-connectivity between cities and markets makes for an important infrastructure asset that will generate benefits through enabling foreign direct investment, business clusters and other spill-over impacts on the productive capacity of state economy .
These airports will provide a much-needed fillip for economic development in the respective districts in particular and overall development of the state in general through contribution to GDP , tax revenues and major employment generation apart from attracting sizable investments.

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