The demand for establishment of a full-fledged airport at Brahmapur has been intensified. After the demand raised by the Forum for Development, now  Bharatiya Bikash Parishad, a socio-cultural organisation, has  raised the same demand.

A delegation of Bharatiya Bikash Parishad led by its State president Surendra Panigrahi submitted a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways, and Union Minister of Civil Aviation through the Brahmpaur Sub-Collector here on Friday.The Parishad said that, the existing Rangailunda air strp currently located in the close vicinity of the Berhampur University campus which was established by the British Government during the 2nd World War has a 750 meter long runway with a decent helipad spread over 40 acres of land to its credit which can hardly support the required traffic to carry passengers from here to the rest part of the country for its limitations and due to its little scope of expansion.

The Parishad has demanded to set up a state of the art all weather domestic as well as a Cargo airport on the outskirts of Brahmapur city.

The Parishad also said that, currently there is no cargo airport between 2,000 km stretch from Hyderabad and Kolkata and Brahmapur is geographically situated in the middle of the  two cities and as such satisfies all the prerequisites needed for establishing the airport at Brahmapur. Moreover, the Bhubaneswar airport is around 200 km away from Brahmapur City while another neighboring Vishakapatnam airport is 260 km from the silk city. 

The Government, keeping future expansion in mind, can identify the required patch of land available either near Sithalapalli or near Kanisi and submit its proposal to the Union Government to immediately work out its implementation, the Parishad demanded.Any attempt to expand the existing Rangailunda airstrip in to a full-fledged all weather airports would be a sheer futile exercise, the Parishad said.

Among others, Parishad vice-president Sukanta Panda, State general secretary Rashmi Ranjan, EG Patra, Guru Charan Patra, Arun Choudhury, Hrushikesh Patra and Manas R. Patra were present.