vijayawada the foundation stone of gannavaram airports new terminal will be laid on monday in the presence of chief minister n chandrababu naidu and union civil aviation minister ashok gajapathi raju according to the airport officials the new building will have its own car parking and associated infrastructure it is proposed to be built with about rs 150 crore and will be capable of handling 500 passengers with half of them departing from here at a time the passengerfriendly terminal is a steel and glass structure spread over an area of 9520 sq m with stateoftheart facilities these include baggage handling system inclined arrival baggage claim carousels central airconditioning public address system fire alarm system flight information display system cctv for surveillance checkin counters with common use terminal equipment cute and other said an official the interiors have been designed to portray the ruralurban blend in vijayawada the local environment and culture references as well as the historical art and architecture of the region will be interpreted in a modern way to add grandeur to the space the official explained there will be 16 checkin counters one baggage conveyor in the departure area two baggage claim carousels and parking for 300 cars meanwhile officials said that the works for amaravatis foundationlaying ceremony on october 22 is in the last leg with the officials deciding to not have any helipads between gannavaram and vijayawada which was the previous plan the helipads will be in the airport itself due to security reasons we have decided to have the helipads in the airport in addition to the three seven are almost ready a little patch work will be done before the spg takes over the premises the official said the airport is said to handle parking of five ab 320 type aircrafts the new apron can have five ab 320s and the old can have two atr72500 aircrafts parked during the capital ceremony that apart we also are using rajahmundry and hyderabad airports for parking the official concluded