Bhubaneswar: Ahmedabad-based IndiaOne Air has announced direct flight service from Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in Bhubaneswar to Jeypore Airport in Odisha’s Koraput district from Monday.
According to sources, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the service around 10.30 am.
The flight will depart from Bhubaneswar at 11.35 am and is scheduled to land at 1.20 pm in Jeypore. Likewise, the aircraft will take off from Jeypore at 4.05 pm and arrive in Bhubaneswar at 5.50 pm.
Only one flight will fly every day carrying nine passengers. The ticket fare per passenger will be Rs 2,500, said sources.
The airline made the announcement on its official Twitter account on Friday night and mentioned that all the tickets with the introductory offer price of Rs 999 till November 9 have been sold. “We are extremely grateful for the overwhelming response. Bookings were open till November 9. Within a few hours of announcement, all the seats in the flight were sold,” it tweeted.
“This is the first airport in Odisha that will be run by the state government,” Bhubaneswar Airport Director Prasanna Pradhan told the media.
At present, it takes nearly 12 hours to reach Bhubaneswar by road and introduction of the flight service will bring it down to 1 hour and 45 minutes.
It is pertinent to mention here that the airstrip was constructed in 1962 along with the establishment of a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) factory nearby Sunabeda. In the 1980s, Vayudoot operated a daily Bhubaneswar-bound flight via Visakhapatnam.
The master plan included upgrading the terminal building with modern facilities, widening the apron, a wider approach road from the national highway, and constructing a compound wall.
Later in 2011, the state public works department (PWD) prepared a proposal of around Rs 6 crore to renovate the airstrip. The runway was widened from 15 to 24 metres (49 to 79 ft) and a 2.5-kilometre (1.6 mi) boundary wall was built. Around Rs 55 crore was sanctioned for this project.
In October 2019, the state government approached the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) to upgrade the airport by extending the runway up to 5,000 feet.
Jeypore Airport was granted a licence for airport operations by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) under Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) on October 20.
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