Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has inaugurated the new terminal at the Gannavaram airport near Vijayawada on Thursday.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Urban Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister Sujana Chowdhary and others state MPs and MLAs have attended the Bhoomi Puja ceremony.
The Air terminal would increase the viability of airlines to operate from AP. It is built at 9,520 square meters at a cost of Rs 137 crore so that it can serve more passenger traffic.Its capacity increased from 100 PHP (Peak Hour Passengers) to 500 PHP and has a runway 2,286 meters or 7500 feet.
At present, the airport handled about 4.5 lakh domestic passengers and 8,342 domestic aircraft movements for April-November 2016. The growth in passengers and aircraft movements was about 76 per cent and 86 per cent.