Visakhapatnam: YSRCP Visakhapatnam district president KK Raju on Tuesday came down heavily on Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for claiming credit for the projects initiated by the previous YSRCP government. Terming it nothing short of a ‘credit theft’ at a media conference held in the city party office on Tuesday, Raju asserted that the Bhogapuram International Airport was one of the initiatives embarked upon during the then YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government. From land acquisition to statutory clearances and agreement, a major part of the construction work took shape during YS Jagan’s government for the airport and not under the present coalition government as claimed unabashedly, he criticised.

He said Jagan personally took keen interest in the airport construction and ensured preparation of a comprehensive master plan, including the planning of a 70-metre-wide main road connecting Visakhapatnam to the airport. “All the groundwork was completed during YSRCP’s tenure. Today, the coalition government is claiming credit for most part of the project work the YSRCP did back then,” he pointed out.

The YSRCP Visakhapatnam district president recalled that when Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone earlier, only about 377 acres of land for the airport had been acquired which was grossly insufficient. It was only after YS Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in 2019, the project was put on a fast track mode, he shared. “Agreements were finalised in 2020, land acquisition began in 2021, NOCs were secured in 2022, land acquisition was completed by January 2023 and construction commenced on May 3, 2023 with a clear timeline given for its completion by June 2026,” he stressed.

KK Raju further criticised the coalition government for completely neglecting the facilitation of road connectivity to the airport. He said that despite the master plan envisioning a 70-metre-wide main access road from Visakhapatnam to Bhogapuram, the present government failed to prepare even a DPR or secure alignment approvals. As a result, he said, there is no proper connectivity to the airport and passengers are forced to depend on a single congested road, choking the traffic at Anandapuram junction.

The YSRCP Visakhapatnam district president questioned Union Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu on how passengers are expected to reach the airport without a proper access road.