Visakhapatnam: Tomorrow, passengers will be able to fly in and out of the airport at Visakhapatnam, five days after it was brutally refashioned by Cyclone Hudhud. An Air India flight is scheduled to land late in the afternoon from New Delhi and take off an hour later for Hyderabad.
The port city, known as Vizag among locals, bore the brunt of the cyclone's roaring winds; it is still without power.
The roof of the airport terminal built in February 2009, suffered extensive damage. Crucially, the runway was spared and the Air Traffic Control tower was not damaged extensively, said officials, allowing a relatively early re-opening considering the onslaught of the cyclone, which struck Vizag city at wind speeds of 180-195 km per hour.
After the lone Air India flight tomorrow, nine flights will be made operational on Saturday, said officials. Tarpaulin sheets will stand in for a roof at the passenger terminal. Because computer systems were ripped out by the cyclone and have not been reinstalled yet, manual boarding passes will be issued. By the end of the month, the airport will be back to normal, said officials, and international flights will start operating on November 1.
Vizag hosts an enormous naval base, which helps maintain the city's airport. 500 crores will be needed to completely restore the airport.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plane landed here on Tuesday when he arrived to review the battered landscape in and around Vizag and the relief operations that are being supervised personally by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Naval aircraft have also been using the airport to bring in essential supplies like food packets.
Source: NDTV
