Flight services from the proposed airport in Puri would commence by 2022 or 2023, informed Commerce & Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera on Sunday.“The process of identifying land for the proposed airport has already started. If everything goes as planned, the flight services from Puri will commence by 2022 or 2023,” he told reporters. Besides, a plan is on to upgrade the airstrips in all 13 undivided districts of State, he informed. “Preparations are underway to commence flight services from Rourkela, Utkela and Jeypore airports,” Behera said.The Minister’s statement came a day after a high-level meeting chaired by Civil Aviation Joint Secretary Usha Padhee with top officials and other stakeholders in Bhubaneswar.
Padhee interacted with State E&IT Secretary Manoj Kumar Mishra and others about various ongoing aviation projects in the State. The officials discussed the development of the airports at Puri, Rourkela, Bhawanipatna and Jeypore.Government source said the Rourkela and Jeypore airports are in the final stages of completion and would be ready for operation under the UDAN scheme very soon. Padhee also discussed air connectivity issues with these new airports.
The process under the UDAN scheme for new connectivity would be shortly finalised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Government of Odisha jointly. Recently, a team of experts had visited Puri for a feasibility study for an international airport at Puri. The six-member team of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) on June 17 visited two locations at Girala on Puri-Brahmagiri Road and Sipasarubali on Puri-Konark Marine Drive Road, out of the four proposed sites, for the Puri Shree Jagannath International Airport.
Source said the proposed international airport would be established at Sipasarubali on 1,000 acres of land. A six-lane express highway would be built to connect the airport with Bhubaneswar. Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had requested the Centre for establishing an international airport at Puri, around 60 km away from Bhubaneswar, for which the State Government has identified land.
