The demand for a full-fledged state -of -the- art national standard domestic air port at south Odisha’s commercial and educational hub Brahmapur got a fillip following an unanimous resolution adopted by the Ganjam Bar Association in this regard.
The resolution strongly urged the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation to establish a national standard air port at Brahmapur city considering its strategic importance and profitability.
Notably, the Association had earlier submitted a memorandum to the Airport Authority of India demanding early construction/establishment of a national standard airport at Brahmapur. The Union Civil Aviation Ministry in its letter on April 29 had also written to the State Government on the matter.
The Bar Association in its virtual meeting held recently applauded the decision of the Union Government and the AAI to include Brahmapur Airport in Odisha among 49 airports that are to be established in the country at the earliest in order to improve the regional air connectivity between cities across India. Similarly, CM Naveen Patnaik while laying the foundation for a domestic and cargo airport in Brahmapur, former Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju too then had promised for establishment of a domestic and cargo airport at Brahmapur at the earliest during his visit in 2016, but in vain.
Realizing the importance and necessity of a domestic airport at Brahmapur, several leaders and public representatives including Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajya Sabha MP Sambit Patra and Brahmapur MP Chandra Sekhar Sahu had made an appeal to the Union Government for early establishment of a domestic and cargo airport at Brahmapur which too remain unheeded.
Similarly, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in his reply to a question put by Brahmapur MP CS Sahu in Lok Sabha on 17.9.2020 said that, though the Ministry had received several representations for establishment of a domestic airport at Brahmapur, but no such proposal has yet been received Green Field project characteristics, the memorandum recalled.
Ganjam Bar Association chairman Bhagaban Sahu lamented that, in spite of all these initiatives and assurances given by the former Union Civil Aviation Minister and the CM, the silence of both State and Union Governments in the matter was highly deplorable.
The memorandum elaborately dwelt upon the strategic, economic, cultural and tourism merits of Brahmapur for deserving an airport.
Among others who signed the memorandum include Bar Association chairman Bhagaban Sahu, secretary Sudhansu Sekhar Panda and other members of the EC.