Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district on Saturday, giving the state its first greenfield international airport since its bifurcation in 2014.
The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone for and inaugurated projects worth nearly ₹18,000 crore across the state. According to an official statement, these include the ₹460-crore ASIP Semiconductor Project at Visakhapatnam, being developed by ASIP Technologies in partnership with APACT of the Republic of Korea.
Addressing the gathering, Modi said the Centre is committed to creating the necessary infrastructure and ecosystem to transform the region into a major investment and employment destination.
Calling the airport a “runway and launch pad” for the aspirations of North Andhra’s youth, Modi said it would significantly enhance employment opportunities and regional development.
Modi said the country had only 74 airports before the NDA government came to power, but that number had now increased to 166. “Air connectivity had expanded to smaller towns, while the UDAN regional connectivity scheme had enabled millions of first-time passengers to travel by air,” he said.
The airport has been developed by GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Ltd. (GVIAL), a GMR Aero-led subsidiary, on 2,200 acres under the public-private partnership (PPP) model on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. Built at a cost of more than ₹5,640 crore, the airport was completed several months ahead of schedule and will commence commercial operations on August 17.
Designed to handle six million passengers annually in its first phase, the airport is scalable to more than 40 million passengers per annum (MPPA) over subsequent phases.
Prabhakar Rao, Deputy Managing Director, GMR Group, said the second phase of expansion will begin once annual passenger traffic reaches five million, a milestone he expects the airport to achieve in four to five years.
Initially, around 40 daily flights departures currently operating from the existing Visakhapatnam airport will shift to Bhogapuram. GMR expects more domestic as well as international airlines to add services during the winter schedule.
“This airport will become a central hub. Visakhapatnam’s emergence as a major economic centre, supported by significant investments in data centres, manufacturing, logistics and technology sectors will help us achieve the target within four to five years,” Rao said.
The airport’s developers are betting on the region’s broader economic transformation to drive passenger traffic. With companies such as Microsoft, Google and Reliance announcing plans to establish data centres near Visakhapatnam, GMR expects the airport to serve as a catalyst for economic growth, tourism, employment generation and industrial development in eastern India.
The Centre has decided to discontinue scheduled commercial operations at the existing Visakhapatnam Airport and transfer its airport code, VTZ, to the new Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram.
According to the government’s notification, the civil enclave at Visakhapatnam Airport (INS Dega) will remain closed for scheduled commercial operations for 30 years from 12.01 a.m. on August 17, 2026, when Bhogapuram airport begins commercial services.
Unlike Goa, where both Dabolim and Manohar International Airport continue to operate, or metropolitan cities such as Delhi and Mumbai that have multiple commercial airports, Visakhapatnam’s civilian traffic will be shifted entirely to the new airport.
The airport’s airside infrastructure includes a 3,800-metre Code 4E runway, a parallel taxiway, rapid exit taxiways, 18 aircraft stands and a 55-metre air traffic control tower, enabling efficient operations and future expansion.
Beyond aviation infrastructure, the project includes a 154-acre Aerocity, a residential township, an industrial zone and an aerospace hub, creating an integrated ecosystem for business, logistics, training and aerospace-related industries.
To improve connectivity between Visakhapatnam city and the airport, located about 60 km away, the Andhra Pradesh government will initially deploy 20 electric buses, with plans to increase the fleet to 100.