VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the government to upgrade the Gannavaram airport, near here, to an international airport. In a letter to chief minister N Kirankumar Reddy on Wednesday, ACCI president Muthavarapu Muralikrishna underlined the need for developing the Gannavaram airport as all the other major airports like Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Chennai are situated at more than 300 km from here.“The Gannavaram airport serves the needs of at least seven districts, which means almost one-third of the state. There is a substantial population of NRIs hailing from this area who are living and working in the USA, West Asia and Europe. If the Gannavaram airport is provided with full-fledged facilities as per the plan envisaged, an enormous growth in the passenger traffic can be expected,” he said.While thanking to the chief minister for sanctioning Rs 52 crore for land acquisition for the expansion of the airport, Muralikrishna said the fund would not be sufficient to meet the cost of the land proposed to be acquired for the airport’s expansion. The government should release more funds and complete the expansion work soon, he said.
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