Amaravati, Feb 9 (IANS): The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday decided to allot 500 acres of land for the proposed Greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram in Vijayanagaram district.

The decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The land is spread over six acres of land.

In 2005, the government had issued notification to acquire 2,004 acres of land for the project at Bhogapuram, 40 km from the port city of Visakhapatnam, where the existing airport belongs to the Indian Navy.

To be developed on 2,703 acres under public-private partnership mode, it will be an integrated airport with Aerocity, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility and Aviation Academy.

The cabinet also decided to allot 70 acres of land for Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) at Bhogapuram for developing a mega food park.

As this was possibly the last cabinet meeting before the elections, it took many key decisions, especially with regard to land allotments.

Information and Public Relations Minister K. Srinivasulu and Human Resources Development Minister G. Srinivasa Rao briefed media about the cabinet decisions.

The cabinet agreed to allot 140 acres of land for Accord University in Visakhapatnam district. Accord University propose to set up multi-stream university with multi superspeciality hospital. The university proposes to invest Rs.5,000 crore in 10 years.

The cabinet decided to set up Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) Amaravati. Srinivasa Rao said this would be a model university.

ATwenty acres of land was allotted at Ibrahimpatnam in Krishna district for Amaravati American Institute of Medical Sciences.

To meet the future water requirements of state capital Amaravati, it was decided to build a barrage across Krishna River at an estimated cost of Rs.3,278 crore.

The cabinet also gave its nod for 20 percent interim relief to state government employees with effect from July 1, 2018.