VISAKHAPATNAM: The first commercial validation flight landed at Bhogapuram Airport at 11 am on Sunday, marking a key milestone ahead of the airport’s scheduled opening on June 26. The Alluri Sitarama Raju Greenfield International Airport at Bhogapuram is nearing operational readiness, with 97% of the work completed. Officials said only a few civil and interior works remain. The validation flight was an Air India Airbus A320 aircraft that arrived from Delhi carrying Union civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu, Vizianagaram MP Kalisetti Appala Naidu, and officials from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). They were received at the airport by state ministers, MLAs and MPs. The aircraft touched down on the newly constructed runway, which is over 3,000 metres long. Bhogapuram Airport, the country’s second greenfield airport after Mumbai, has been designed to withstand severe cyclonic conditions. It can sustain wind speeds of up to 275 kmph and heavy rainfall of up to 27 cm, with a drainage system built to handle extreme weather. The airport is being developed in three phases to eventually handle around 45 million passengers annually. The first phase, being built at a cost of Rs 4,727 crore, will have a capacity of six million passengers per year.
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