Baripada: Mounting a scathing attack on the Odisha government over Amarda Road airstrip in Mayurbhanj district, Union Minister Bishweswar Tudu on Tuesday accused it of not cooperating in making the proposed airport operational.
Speaking to media, the Minister of State for Jal Shakti said that a meeting had been convened for transfer of land to pave the way for commencing flight services from Amarda Road airstrip. A formal letter had been issued to all those concerned about the meeting, he said.
The senior BJP leader, who represents Mayurbhanj in Lok Sabha, said that apart from him, three MLAs from the area and officials from the Defence Research and Development Organisations (DRDO) had reached the meeting venue.
However, the district collector of Mayurbhanj did not turn up for the meeting, he said. As a result, the much awaited process for transfer of land for the ambitious project could not take place, causing further delay in commencing flight services from the airstrip, the Union Minister claimed.
Terming the development as unfortunate, Tudu said the failure of the collector showed that the state government is not sincere about transfer of land and early commencement of flight services from the airstrip.
The Mayurbhanj district collector was not immediately available for comment.
Accusing the state government of not cooperating, the Union Minister said the matter will be taken up with the Prime Minister and steps will be taken to find a way out.
It may be noted here that the Centre recently identified the Amarda Road airstrip for operation of RCS flights under the UDAN scheme, making it the sixth airport in Odisha.
“Amarda Road airstrip is available in the list of unserved airports in UDAN Document. Under UDAN 4.2, it has been identified for development for the operation of RCS flights. The route Bhubaneswar-Amarda-Bhubaneswar has been awarded to Air Taxi for the operations,” Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia had said in a letter to Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi recently.
The airstrip in Odisha’s Rasgovindpur was included in special bid under UDAAN 4.1 in 2021. A central team also visited the airstrip to study the feasibility of starting the operation of an airport.
Scindia further informed that Rs 45 crore has also been sanctioned for development of the airstrip. It has been informed by the Government of Odisha that development work at the airstrip will be taken up once the land is handed over by the Ministry of Defence to the state. On the readiness of the airport, the Selected Airline Operator may start RCS flight operations from/to Amarda, he had said in the letter.
