Even as the Biju Patnaik Airport authorities here are pulling out all the stops to get an international status, the Central Government’s decision on Friday to set up 51 new low-cost airports in the
country including Brahmapur, Rourkela and Keonjhar in Odisha has boosted them to expedite the pending activities required for this recognition.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) would set up the airports in Tier-II and Tier-II cities in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Besides the low-cost airports, the Central Government has also decided to grant new international airport status to Bhubaneswar and Manipur’s Imphal at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore.
The decisions were taken at a meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held in New Delhi to finalise infrastructure projects for 2013-14.