Amaravati: A portion of the under construction terminal of Rajahmundry Airport in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district collapsed on Friday and a report on the incident has been sought by the Union Civil Aviation Minister.
A tragedy was averted as workers were not present at the site when the portion of the terminal collapsed and consequently no one was injured in the incident.
A few iron grills of the under-construction building collapsed in the afternoon. It was immediately not clear how the collapse occurred.
The officials, however, heaved a sigh of relief as the mishap did not result in any casualties.
The new terminal is being constructed next to the existing terminal of Rajahmundry, which was re-named as Rajamahendravaram in 2015.
Union Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu spoke to Rajahmundry Airport and Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials and sought a report on the incident.
The minister had recently visited the airport to review the progress of the new terminal work.
The foundation stone for the new terminal was laid in December 2023 by then Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
To be built at a cost of Rs.350 crore, the new terminal at Rajahmundry Airport will have an area of 17,029 square metres, which will be four times the size of the existing terminal.
There will be three aero bridges, modern connectivity, 28 check-in counters and sustainable features.
It will also serve over 2,100 passengers during peak hours and 30 lakh passengers annually, which is nine times more than the current capacity of the terminal.
This airport is spread over 1,200 acres with a runway of 3,165 metres that has the capability to land Boeing 377, Airbus 321.
It has six parking bays and is connected to Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad with 126 flight movements in a week.
With the completion of the new terminal, peak passenger load from the current 225 will go up to 2,100 passengers.
On then Rajahmundry MP Bharat Margani’s demand for building a cargo terminal, Scindia had said that once the new passenger terminal is built, the airport will get larger narrow-bodied aircraft.
(IANS)
