Believe it or not, Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had originally proposed acquiring 15,000 acres of land for Bhogapuram International Airport in Vizianagaram district, which is scheduled to be inaugurated on Saturday.
According to sources, Naidu envisioned not merely an airport but a massive real estate and aviation project around it, including an integrated Aerocity and several associated ventures.
However, following strong public opposition, legal hurdles and subsequent revisions, the project ultimately proceeded with around 2,200 acres allocated for airport construction.
Sources said the broader master plan included aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities, aircraft servicing centres, aviation training academies for pilots and technical personnel, aircraft-component manufacturing units and defence-related industries.
The proposed ecosystem was intended to transform Bhogapuram into a major aviation and aerospace hub.
“The location was also considered strategically advantageous because of its proximity to Visakhapatnam Port and Gangavaram Port, enabling the development of a global logistics hub integrating air and sea transport,” sources said.
Another major reason behind the proposed large-scale land acquisition was future expansion. The government reportedly wanted to create a sizeable land bank to accommodate passenger growth over the next five decades.
The additional land would have enabled the construction of more runways, passenger terminals, hotels, business parks, logistics facilities and other commercial developments without facing land-acquisition difficulties in the future.
Had Naidu proceeded with the original plan, it could have become the largest airport city in the country.
At present, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, developed on approximately 5,500 acres, is among the largest major airports in India by land area.
Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport occupies around 5,106 acres, while Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru was built on roughly 4,000 acres.
The government’s initial land-acquisition proposal faced stiff resistance from farmers in villages surrounding Bhogapuram, many of whom refused to give up their agricultural land.
The Opposition also criticised the move, while litigation eventually reached the High Court. Judicial intervention stalled the acquisition process and delayed the airport project.
The government later reduced the proposed acquisition to 2,703 acres, which were allocated to the GMR Group for airport development.
After the YSR Congress Party came to power in 2019, approximately 2,200 acres were allotted to GMR for the airport, while around 500 acres were retained by the state-owned Andhra Pradesh Airports Development Corporation Limited.
Bhogapuram International Airport is being developed by the GMR Group under the Public-Private Partnership model at an estimated cost of Rs 4,727 crore.
The Andhra Pradesh government has spent an additional Rs 1,583 crore on land acquisition and supporting infrastructure.
If the original proposal to acquire 15,000 acres had been implemented, land acquisition alone would reportedly have cost the government more than Rs 6,000 crore at the time.
