India, July 29 -- Scheduled commercial operations at Visakhapatnam Airport will be shut for 30 years and shift to the greenfield Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport in Andhra Pradesh's Bhogapuram, over 50 kilometres away, on August 17, with the transfer of its code (VTZ). Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new airport on August 1.

Regular commercial flight operations previously shifted to greenfield airports in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) and Hyderabad after their inauguration in 2008. In June, commercial operations commenced at the Noida International Airport in Uttar Pradesh's Jewar, strengthening the aviation network in the National Capital Region.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region got its second airport with the open...