GMR gets Bhogapuram airport project in AP

Hyderabad: GMR Airports Limited (GAL), a subsidiary of infra major GMR Infrastructure Ltd, on Monday announced that it received the Letter of Award (LoA) for the development and operations of a Greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh from the State government there.

In February 2019, GAL had emerged as the highest bidder for project on a PPP basis. The initial capacity (Phase-1) of the airport will be six million passengers per annum.

The project involves design, build, finance, construction, development, up-gradation, modernisation, operation and maintenance of the Greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram for a period of 40 years, extendable by additional 20 years through international competitive bidding process, with GMR Airports Limited having RoFR of 10 per cent.

In 2019, the existing airport at Vishakapatnam Naval Airfield has handled 2.78 million passengers and 4,400 tonnes cargo. Over the past years, the passenger traffic at the Vizag airport has grown at 21 per cent CAGR while the airport ranks 5th amongst the custom airports in India in terms of cargo traffic.

The new Greenfield airport site lies on the border of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, and is nearly 45 kilometres from Visakhapatnam through NH-5 and 25 km from Vizianagaram via NH-43.

The new airport site is strategically located on the east coast and it stands to get benefit from the vast catchment area surrounding the region.

Moreover, the beach corridor development is underway in proximity to the proposed international airport, which will provide impetus to retail and hospitality developments in the region.

"We are very happy to be partnering with Government of Andhra Pradesh to develop, operate and manage the prestigious Bhogapuram International Airport. We are excited about the potential of this region," GBS Raju, Business Chairman, GMR Airports, said in a statement.

GMR Group operates several international airports in India and abroad. It's airport portfolio has around 172 mn passenger capacity in operation and under development, comprising of India's busiest Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Mactan Cebu International Airport in partnership with Megawide in Philippines.