Vijayawada airport officials to be trained in city

Vijayawada airport officials to be trained in city
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Highlights

The Customs and Central Excise Department is ready to operate from the Gannavaram Airport. The department will be sending two batches of its officers and staffs to Hyderabad for two-week training on handling customs at international airports. The first batch of staff and officers would leave Vijayawada on July 6.

Two teams to get two-week training at Hyderabad airport

The Customs and Central Excise Department is ready to operate from the Gannavaram Airport. The department will be sending two batches of its officers and staffs to Hyderabad for two-week training on handling customs at international airports. The first batch of staff and officers would leave Vijayawada on July 6.


“We want to make sure that our staff, who have been handling the activities in the ports till now, are ready for airport operations. The two-week training would make them ready for the airport operations,” said S K Rahaman, commissioner of customs.


The airport had already sent a proposal to the Centre seeking permission for international operations, initially in the night. The airport would use its existing facilities for the domestic operations during the day time and have proposed the international operations in night. The airport officials have also written to the government and the Customs and Central Excise for offering space for their operations in the renovated terminal.


“The renovated terminal now has 3,200 square meters of space which can also be spared for the Customs and Central Excise operations,” said airport director M Raja Kishore. The airport authorities in association with some of the airline operators are working on collecting data on the density of passengers for international operations.


The Gannavaram Airport is currently connected to New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, which are international airports having global airline connectivity. “We are now looking at the passenger movements at these airports to identify the actual number of passengers from Vijayawada region flying abroad.


We are also studying the connectivity of the Vijayawada passengers with these four international airports. We have learnt that there are several NRI families from Krishna, Guntur and parts of Prakasam district. The passengers from East and West Godavari districts have Middle East connections.


This would be sufficient for the airlines to start international operations from here,” Raja Kishore asserted. The airport director added that they were also conducting a study on the cargo movement from this region. They are in touch with the travel agencies, hotels and the chambers to assess the cargo movement from this region so as to start the international operations from Gannavaram.


“We are ready for international operations anytime. We can start the operations in the night time leaving the airport for domestic operations during the day,” Raja Kishore asserted.

By:D Gopi

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