Bhubaneswar: The state government’s efforts to convert the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in the city into a world-class airport have fallen flat as the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has decided to shelve the expansion plan.
The AAI had formulated a plan for the expansion of the airport in 2013 for which the BPIA authorities had asked the state government to provide 64 acre of land. As per the plan, the runway would have been extended from 9000 feet to 10,500 feet for operation of special cargo flights and jumbo jets like Boeing 777 and Boeing 747.
After several rounds of meetings, the state government on March 26, 2017, told the BPIA authorities that it can provide 47 acre under the possession of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT).
As informed by the BPIA authorities, due to non-availability of the land, the AAI is no more interested in its expansion plan. “As the existing runway is enough for operation of the commercial flights, AAI has laid priority on development of the infrastructure and the passenger service. It will announce the cancellation of the expansion proposal very soon,” they said.
The BPIA authorities further said as part of the infrastructure development, the construction of a parallel taxi track near the runway is underway. With the operationalisation of this track, the flights will not wait on the runway for the takeoff for long and the frequency of landing of the flights will increase.
However, they said the re-carpeting of the existing runway is yet to begin.
It may be recalled that the state government in December 2017 had identified patches of land at Malipada, Jankia, Tangiapada and Badasahi in Khurda district for establishment of the greenfield airport project where Code-E or wide-bodied aircraft like the Boeing 777 and 747 can land.
However, there is no further progress as neither the government nor the AAI has had any meetings since then.
