Members of Parliament V. Balashowry and Kesineni Srinivas and Krishna Collector P. Raja Babu at the Vijayawada Airport Advisory Committee meeting in Gannavaram on Saturday. , Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Machilipatnam MP and Vijayawada Vallabhaneni Balashowry, chairman of the International Airport Advisory Committee, said efforts are being made to increase the frequency of existing international services and start new services from Vijayawada to domestic and international destinations.
He along with co-chairman and Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) and others held a review meeting at Gannavaram airport on Saturday.
Shri Balashowry said that efforts are being made to increase the frequency of services between UAE, Kuwait and Visakhapatnam and to start new services to Varanasi and Sri Lanka. New services will be launched one after the other. The number of passengers at the airport has increased by 17.2% in the last nine months.
He asked the officials to expedite the process of restarting the outgoing cargo services.
concern over delay
Shri Balashowry expressed concern over the inordinate delay in the completion of the construction of the new Integrated Terminal Building (NITB) of the airport, which was undertaken at ₹420 crore.
Though the civil work was completed, the construction work remained pending for a long time, he said and asked the airport authorities to complete the construction and put the NITB into use within the next nine months.
He asked the airport authorities to make arrangements for foreign exchange services and duty free shops in the airport premises.
Officials told the MP that the service would be started by August 15.
Gannavaram MLA Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan urged the airport authorities to provide funds to the panchayats around the airport for waste management.
Krishna district SP P. Joshua asked the officials to provide basic facilities at the police post and install CC cameras at the airport.
Krishna Collector P. Raja Babu, Airport Director M. Laxmikant Reddy and others were present.