The State Government on Wednesday set a target to start regional connectivity of flights from Jharsuguda Airport to Raipur and Jagdalpur during the first week of February, 2018 under the UDAN scheme.
It was discussed at the State-level Coordination and Monitoring Committee meeting held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the Secretariat. GA Principal Secretary Ashok Kumar Meena and Civil Aviation Director Pradeep Kumar Biswal presented the updates. It was revealed that the infrastructure of Rourkela Airstrip is now UDAN ready. The Obstacle and limitation Surface (OlS) Survey of all the four airports have been completed. Padhi directed to make Utkela and Jeypore Airstrips UDAN ready by March 2018.
DGP Dr RP Sharma said around 135 police and 27 fire personnel have already been trained for providing security and fire services in the regional airports. According to data, five airstrips, including the Biju Patnaik International Air Port, have been selected for Phase-I of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)-UDAN. Other four airstrips are Rourkela, Jharsuguda, Utkela (Kalahandi) and Jeypore (Koraput). From among these, Biju Pattanaik International Air Port, Bhubaneswar will serve as Mentor Airport for RCS.
The flight operator company appraised that regional connectivity from Kolkata to Rourkela has been scheduled to be started from January 23, 2018 (the birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose). The flight from Jharsuguda is scheduled to begin from Jharsuguda during first week of February 2018.
Among others, Revenue and Disaster Management Principal Secretary Dr Chandra Sekhar Kumar, IG Santosh Bala, GA Additional Secretary Pradeep Kumar Biswal and senior officers from Ministry of Civil Aviation were present.