Senior BJP leader Rama Chandra Panda submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, and the Chief Minister of Odisha demanding proper planning and designing of a new and full-fledged airport here.
He demanded that the airport should have an initial runway of 1,880 meters in the first phase with provision to expand the runway to 24,387 meters.
Notably, the NDA Government had formulated a new civil aviation policy in 2015 aiming not just to revive, but also to develop the existing un-served and under-served airports/airstrips in the country to increase air connectivity to different regions under which the middle class people in particular can afford to fly. The Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) which aimed at making air travel affordable to at least one member of the 30-crore middle class families by capping the price of an one-hour flight at `2,500 in the regional routes, facilitated a number of incentives to airlines to operate their flights in regional routes. However, if the proposed airports/airstrips are not properly planned, designed, and are not made amenable to future expansion, such an ambitious vision would become futile, the memorandum cautioned.
Brahmapur city which is the commercial, industrial, cultural, and educational nerve center of south Odisha and the fourth most populous urban city in the State with an estimated population of 355,823 (2011 census) and 58th overall in India unfortunately has been deprived of regular air connectivity in spite of its growing demand for air service. On the other hand, the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh is planning to develop one airport for each district to ensure the increasing air connectivity under new aviation policy even though the State is already having five existing airports, Panda pointed out.
To avail the new aviation policy, the State government should identify a patch of suitable land preferably within a radius of 20-25 km of Brahmapur and offer necessary infrastructural and financial support.
Notably, the existing Rangeilunda airstrip was constructed in 1934 (80 years back) without having permanent structure and required infrastructure. But in the meantime, the Berhampur University has occupied a major portion of this age old airstrip site, so also the Defence Department occupied many adjacent lands of the airstrip for its artillery center and its approach roads. Hence, it may be difficult to vacate them. As a result, the planning of airstrip expansion is being changed from time to time during last one decade making the entire effort shaky, futile and undependable, Panda alleged.
Panda suggested that, either the State Government should acquire the adjoining land immediately and expand the existing airstrip or alternatively keeping the view of future expansion can identify an alternative site within a radius of 20 km from Brahmapur.