Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has reiterated the request to name the upcoming airport at Jharsuguda after eminent freedom fighter Veer Surendra Sai. He has also urged the Centre to introduce commercial flights to the western Odisha city.
In a letter to Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday, Naveen expressed happiness over completion of the development of work at Jharsuguda airport and its formal inauguration on September 22.
“You might be aware that Jharsuguda is located strategically in an industrial and mining belt of Odisha. Keeping in view the growing importance of this city in western Odisha, I would request you to kindly consider introduction of commercial flights to Jharsuguda,” he wrote.
The Chief Minister suggested that one of the Air India flights from Bhubaneswar to Delhi may be routed through Jharsuguda, to begin with.
Besides, Naveen said that the state government had been requesting that Jharsuguda airport be named after Veer Surendra Sai, a well-know freedom fighter who hailed from the region. “I would like to reiterate the request that the Government of India may consider naming the Jharsuguda Airport as ‘Veer Surendra Sai Airport’, who would be a befitting tribute to the legendary son of the soil,” he added.
The Chief Minister also thanked the Union Minister for the invite to attend the event, when an UDAN flight will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Earlier in June, Naveen had requested Prabhu for naming the airport after the freedom fighter stating that the people of the region have been demanding for the same.
The Union Civil Aviation Ministry, in July, had denied taking any concrete steps towards naming the Jharsuguda airport citing absence of a state Assembly resolution in this regard.
On May 4, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had accorded aerodrome licence to the Jharsuguda airport, the second in the state after Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar.
