Chances Of Commercial Flight Operation To Rourkela Brighten

Bhubaneswar: The move for operation of commercial flights to Rourkela took a step ahead with Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation Usha Padhee holding a discussion with officials of the Odisha Government and Airport Authority of India (AAI) in this regard recently.

In a tweet, Padhee said she discussed various issues relating to early operationalisation of Rourkela Airport for flights under the Regional Connectivity Scheme-Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagarik (RCS-UDAN). The city is likely to get connected by commercial flights in 6-8 months under the scheme, sources said.

Senior officials of the AAI and Air Alliance had conducted a joint inspection of the airport owned by Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) in this connection in third week of November.

They also held a review meeting with Sundargarh Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan and RSP executive director (Personnel and Administration) Rajvir Singh.

In October, principal secretary, Commerce and Transport department Madhusudan Padhi had chaired a meeting on upgradation of the airport from ARC 2B to ARC-2C to allow operation of 72-seat aircraft.