Odisha’s Jeypore Airstrip To Take Wings In 6-8 Months!

Bhubaneswar: Flight services are likely to commence from Jeypore airstrip in the next 6 to 8 months.

“Efforts will be made to include the airstrip in the UDAN Scheme in March next year. All the required steps in this regard have already been taken,” Commerce and Transport Secretary Madhusudan Padhi informed after inspecting the airstrip on Friday.

On January 26, Civil Aviation Joint Secretary Usha Padhee had tweeted that 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.

“It can operate small aircraft and there will be bidding for it,” she had earlier told Odisha Bytes.

After Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda, the Jeypore airstrip will be the third to get the civil aviation airport tag in the state.

Jeypore airstrip along with those in Utkela and Rourkela was developed under the UDAN -4 (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme after agreed to include three airports in Odisha under the regional connectivity scheme.

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The airstrip was built in the 1960s and used during the visit of ministers or VIPs to the town. In the 1980s, Vayudoot operated flights from the airstrip. But the service was continued following a crash though no one was injured in it.

The Odisha government had issued licences to Air Odisha to operate flight services from different airstrips to Jeypore Airport. It was, however, stopped after some time.

Also Read: Jeypore Airport To Be Made Operational Soon!