Bhogapuram gets wings, but tapping it right is key to AP’s growth

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the much-awaited, much-debated Bhogapuram international airport on Saturday. The Greenfield airport, renamed as Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport (ASRIA), has been touted as a game changer for Andhra Pradesh with the state government betting big on the $52-billion Visakhapatnam Economic Region (VER) for AP’s rapid progress in the coming years.

The airport, located 45 km from Visakhapatnam, was built in a record time of 31 months by India’s leading airport player GMR group that spent around Rs 5,600 crore on the airport’s phase 1 development. GMR group, which derives its name from that of its founder Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao (GMR), built the country’s first large Greenfield airport under public private partnership (PPP) – the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.

Incidentally, Mallikarjuna Rao hails from Srikakulam district, the neighbouring district of Vizianagaram in which the new airport is located. The speed at which the new airport has been built can be understood now! The airport, the third Greenfield airport built by the group and the seventh under its operational wings, is scheduled to start commercial operations on August 17.

Spread over 2,200 acres, the airport, developed in the PPP mode, will initially handle six million passengers per annum, expandable to 40 million in due course. GMR group is also developing a 154-acre Aerocity with an integrated ecosystem for businesses, logistics and beyond.

This airport was planned immediately after the Telugu Desam Party-led NDA came to power in 2014. The foundation was laid by the then Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu in February 2019, a few months before the 2019 General Elections, which the TDP lost.

YSR Congress Party, which stormed to power, shifted its focus to welfare schemes. Consequently, the new airport project did not gather the requisite pace, though the YSRCP government obtained several of its approvals. The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led party could have completed the airport when it was in power. It had ample time to do so. But it didn’t.

So, there is no point in crying foul over what it now alleges as credit chori. On returning to power in 2024, Naidu expedited the airport project. But the state government must do a lot more for faster connectivity from Visakhapatnam to the new airport. An access-controlled ExpressWay and ORR around Visakhapatnam on the lines of the one at Hyderabad are imperative for tapping the potential of the new airport.

Interestingly, during Saturday’s inaugural, Chief Minister Naidu praised Narendra Modi at a time when the Prime Minister seemed to be at the receiving end from the Opposition as well as a section of student community, led by Dalit political activist and Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke, who has his own electoral ambitions.

India is a democratic country, and anyone can start a political party, contest elections and rule the country. But using personal abuse against the PM is condemnable. Indulging in such an ugly rhetoric will backfire on them. All said and done, the inauguration of Greenfield airport is certain to put Andhra Pradesh on a rapid growth path once air connectivity improves.

The Greenfield international airport in Hyderabad, took-off in 2008, is a testimony of how a world class airport and related connectivity of global standards can reshape the economy. Let’s hope ASRIA brings in similar dividends to AP. Of course, the outcome depends on how Andhra Pradesh taps the latest infra weapon in its armoury.