The demand for a state-of- the-art full-fledged domestic and cargo airport at Brahmapur has been intensified further. According to information available, hundreds of members led by the President of the Odisha Development Forum Rama Prasad Tripathy forming a human chain marched to the Sub-Collectors’ office here on Monday and submitted a memorandum to Sub-Collector Keerthi Vassan V.
Though the Chief Minister had laid the foundation-stone for a domestic airport at Brahmapur in 2016 keeping the public perceptions in mind, but no further progress in the matter could be made so far.
Former Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju also had supported the establishment of a domestic and cargo airport at Brahmapur during his visit in 2016 and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan too had made a similar demand in February 2020, but all in vain, the memorandum said. Significantly, the Government now has decided to establish an airport at Puri just 59 km from Bhubaneswar, followed by another one at Rourkella which is around 100 km from the existing Jharsuguda airport.
It is planning to have similar such air ports in small towns like Utkela, Dhamara, Jeypur, but unfortunately it is silent on an airport in Brahmapur even though it is second biggest urban cluster and the most emerging city in India’s east coast, the memorandum said.
Citing logic in support of its demand for a domestic and cargo airport, the forum said that, according to a survey 40 per cent passengers to the Bhuabaneswar airport and 25 percent passengers to the Vizag Airport are from Brahmapur and its adjoining areas. Moreover, the silk city is situated around 180 km from the Bhubaneswar airport and 270 km from the Visakhapatnam airport.
Most significantly, more than 25 lakhs educated and less educated migrants of Ganjam district are residing out of the State and abroad for their livelihood as they have migrated over a period of 30-40 years. More than 5 lakhs IT professionals of the region are currently working in the cities like, Bangaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennair, Delhi, Gurugaon and Kolkata and they can hardly afford 25-30 hour of journey to reach home by train. Brahmapur is a commercial city with around 7 lakh population (with urban agglomeration) and the population of Ganjam district alone is 40 lakh with more than 25,000 army and defense staff depending on Brahmapur for communication and transportation, the Forum said.
Besides, the Ganjam district has a plethora of tourist destinations, large industries, and higher educational institutions of national and international importance to its credit, it added. Meanwhile, two more groups, namely, the Joint Action Committee and the Bharat Bikash Parishad are also preparing to resort to Brahmapur Bandh and Post-Card campaign in favour of their demand for an airport at Brahmapur, sources said.
