Odisha Govt’s Puri Airport Proposal Sent To AAI, MoD For Clearance: VK Singh In Rajya Sabha

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government’s proposal for a greenfield airport at Puri has been sent to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the Ministry of Defence for clearance, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (Retd) VK Singh told the Rajya Sabha.

Responding to a query from BJD MP Sasmit Patra, Singh said that the proposal has been sent to the concerned stakeholders including AAI, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) as per Green Field Airport Policy, 2008.

After consultation with stakeholders, the proposal will be placed before the steering committee on greenfield airports for their recommendation on awarding site clearance.  The responsibility of implementation of airport projects, including funding of the project, land acquisition, R&R rests with the concerned airport developer including the respective state government (in case it is the project proponent), according to the policy.

The timeline for construction of airports depends upon various factors such as land acquisition, mandatory clearances, removal of obstacles, financial closure etc. by the respective airport developers.

Last month, the Centre had informed about having accorded in-principle approval for setting up of 21 new Greenfield Airports across the country — Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Hollongi (Itanagar) in Arunachal Pradesh.

Of these, the airports at Durgapur, Shirdi, Kannur, Pakyong, Kalaburagi, Orvakal (Kurnool), Sindhudurg, Kushinagar, Itanagar, Mopa and Shivamogga have already been operationalised.

The Union Minister further informed that the AAI has completed expansion/upgradation works at its Jharsuguda and Rourkela airports. It has also undertaken expansion works at Bhubaneswar Airport, including construction of a link building between Terminal-1 and Terminal- 2 for integrated operations using a passenger boarding bridge (PBB), construction of a parallel taxi track (PTT) and rapid exit taxiway (RET) (Phase-II), resurfacing of runway and conversion of category-I lighting to category-II lighting system. The total expenditure incurred so far for these development works is Rs 196.97 crore and the projected expenditure in 2023-24 for works is Rs 139 crore, he added.

He also mentioned about airstrips at Amarda, Jeypore, Jharsuguda, Rangeilunda, Rourkela and Utkela, which have been identified for development under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN and will operate flights under this scheme.

On Monday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik tweeted that the DGCA has granted license to start flight operations from Utkela airport in Kalahandi district. Initially, Utkela will connect with Bhubaneswar followed by Raipur.

“Glad to share that #UtkelaAirport in #Kalahandi district has received DGCA license to start flight operations. Soon flight operations will commence to #Bhubaneswar. It will boost connectivity, commerce & tourism, fulfilling aspirations of people of the region.”