Bhubaneswar: The decks are being cleared to make the Jeypore airport in Odisha’s Koraput district operational.
A team of officials from Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India (AAI) would visit the airport soon to ensure compliances of observations made by DGCA to complete the licensing process, tweeted Joint Secretary, MoCA, Usha Padhee.
The Odisha cadre IAS officer had a meeting with officials of state and airlines to discuss air connectivity issues of Odisha on Wednesday.
In December, the Centre had agreed to to include three airports in Odisha – Jeypore, Rourkela and Utkela – under the UDAN -4 (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. Besides, the Centre has sanctioned ₹160 crore for the development of the airports at Jharsuguda, Jeypore, Utkela and Rourkela.
Notably, the Odisha government had issued licences to Air Odisha to operate flight services from different airstrips to Jeypore Airport, however, it was stopped after some time. The 15,000m runway at the airport needs extension to 23,000m and the width from 15m to 22 m. Of the 128 acre land estimated for the airport, only 54 acre private land has been acquired so far, the sources added.
