Centre clears Port Blair airport as international

Port Blair, May 01 (UNI) The Centre has approved the proposal of declaring the Veer Savarkar Airport (VSA) here as an international airport.

The international status of the airport would bring greater pace of development with special emphasis on tourism, Manoranjan Bhakta, the lone MP from Andamans told reporters here today.

Meanwhile, the MP said the Airport Authority of India (AAI) would construct more infrastructures here to take VSA at par with the other international airports and make it compatible to handle greater volume of traffic in home and abroad.

The VSA is presently handled by Defence forces of the union territory command and the runway by INS Dhanvantri.

The lone airstrip of Port Blair was built by Japanese forces during their regime in these islands from 1942 to 1945.

UNI