Rourkela: First commercial flight, which took off from Bhubaneswar airport, got water cannon salute as it touched down at Rourkela airport.
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While Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated the first flight to Rourkela through video conferencing, the 72-seater Alliance Air aircraft was flagged off from Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar by Chief Ministe Naveen Patnaik.
Among those present at Bhubaneswar airport were Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, Odisha’s Science and Technology Minister Ashok Panda and Commerce and Tranaport Minister Tukuni Sahu.
Speaking on the occasion, Dharmendra said that the launch of flight services to Rourkela will give considerable boost to business and trade activities in the steel city and nearby areas.Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for introduction of the flight service, he said the initiative showed the Centre’s commitment towards ‘Purvodaya’ and speedy development of the eastern part of the country.
Ashok Panda said the flight service between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela was the dream project of late Biju Patnaik. “The flight operation between Ekamra Kshetra and Steel City is also important in view of tourism as well. This will remain a milestone,” he said.
On claims made by BJP over launching of flight service, he said, “India has a federal system of government. Odisha has equal share in operation of the flight service as the Centre has.”
After reaching Rourkela airport, the aircraft will fly back to Bhubaneswar and land at BPIA at 1 pm. The daily regular flights will start from January 12.
With this, Rourkela will become the fourth airport to start commercial flight operations in the state after Bhubaneswar, Jharsuguda and Jeypore. The RSP-run Rourkela airport of SAIL is being managed by the AAI.
The service is being launched in view of the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup scheduled to be held from January 13 to 29. The steel city will co-host the mega sporting event with Bhubaneswar. It will also prove to be a boon for the mining industry in Odisha.
On December 30, the trial landing of ATR-72 aircraft was successfully conducted by Alliance Air as the flight carrying two pilots arrived at Rourkela airport from Jharsuguda at 3.20 pm and took off for Bhubaneswar at 3.45 pm. On the day, Scindia officially announced that commercial flight operations from Rourkela will be launched on January 7.
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