Developing Bhogapuram Airport on top of agenda, says Vijaya Sai Reddy

Visakhapatnam Bhogapuram International airport will have world-class infrastructure with a dedicated cargo facility, according to YSR Congress Party general secretary and MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy.

Speaking at a webinar organised by Vizag Industrial Scan in association with FICCI in a virtual mode, he went on to elaborate on the upcoming Bhogapuram Airport located in between Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts of North Andhra.

The project has been awarded to GMR Group for which the land acquisition is at final stage. Reddy, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, said the airport will have best-in class infrastructure with a dedicated cargo facility and that the State Government is giving it utmost priority.

Leading industry captains from the air cargo industry spoke at the webinar. The webinar focused on the various opportunities and challenges in the faster evacuation of cargo by flights. The participants gave valuable inputs in making AP an air cargo hub.

Reddy said air cargo h

Air cargo has a significant role to play in AP and urged the exporters to utilise the facility being available at Visakhapatnam International Airport. The airport is a naval air station opened to civilian aircraft as per slots allotted by the Navy.

Stating that the air cargo industry has an important role in the overall logistics ecosystem in the State, Reddy, urged the exporters to utilise the cargo terminal facilities available at the four airports across the State.

"There is no need for our exporters to go to Hyderabad or Bangalore for their air cargo exports," he said and narrated in detail on Act East Policy and informed that Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has announced that India will soon have a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom and Australia. 'This further gives us an opportunity to capitalise on this,' he said.

Those who spoke at the webinar included S. Faheem Ahmed, Principal Commissioner, Customs Preventive, Vijayawada, K. Srinivasa Rao, Vizag Airport Director, S. Suresh, Tirupati Airport Director, Tualsi Prasad,

Chairman, ACAAI, Hyderabad Sub-Region & AP, Rajesh Singh, Assistant Vice President Cargo & Logistics, SpiceJet, Venkat Rao Nekkanti, MD, Nekkanti Seafoods, Suchira Surendranath, Director Strategy & Investments, Brandix, Vivek Vardhan, Product Manager, ICICI Bank, G. Sambasiva Rao, MD,

Sravan Shipping, Nishchal Padhya, Managing Director, Siddhartha Logistics FTWZ and Sriramulu Chandu Sr, GM-Head Planning and Logistics Supply Chain Management, Hetero Drugs.