Hari Babu seeks ENC chief’s intervention

Visakhapatnam: MP K Hari Babu, Visakhapatnam North MLA P Vishnu Kumar Raju and MLC PVN Madhav here on Monday met Chief of Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Karambir Singh and urged his immediate intervention into the restrictions on civilian flights at Visakhapatnam airport.

After the meeting, the leaders said the Chief of ENC positively responded and agreed to cooperate by reducing military slots and agreed to consider postponing the decision. On the occasion, the Vice Admiral

requested that lease amount to be paid to VPT be reduced from Rs 60 crore to Rs 30 crore for acquiring land from the port for new runway. Hari Babu agreed to take up the issue with the Union Minister of Shipping Nitin Gadkari who is coming to the city on July 13. Navy also agreed to speed up the operations at Badangi (Vizianagaram district) and will soon start operations from there also, Hari Babu said.