Flight services from Puri Airport to commence by 2023

Bhubaneswar: Flight services from proposed airport in Puri will commence by 2022 or 2023, informed Commerce & Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera today.

“The process of identifying land for the proposed airport has already started. If everything goes as planned, the flight services from Puri will commence by 2022 or 23,” Behera told reporters.

Besides, the plan is being made to upgrade the airstrips in all 13 undivided districts of Odisha, he said.

“The preparation is underway to commence flight services from Rourkela, Utkela and Jeypore airports,” the Minister said.

The statement came a day after a high-level meeting chaired by Civil Aviation Joint Secretary Usha Padhee with top officials and other stakeholders in Bhubaneswar.

Usha Padhee interacted with E&IT Secretary Manoj Kumar Mishra and others about various ongoing aviation projects in Odisha.

The officials discussed the development of the airports at Puri, Rourkela, Bhawanipatna and Jeypore.

Government source said that the Rourkela and Jeypore airports are in the final stages of completion and will be ready for operation under the UDAN scheme very soon.

Usha Padhee also discussed air connectivity issues with these new airports.

The process under the UDAN scheme for new connectivity will be shortly finalised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Government of Odisha jointly.

Recently, a team of experts had visited Puri for feasibility study for establishment of an international airport near Puri town.

The 6-member team of Airport Authority of India (AAI) on June 17 visited two locations at Girala on Puri-Brahmagiri Road and Sipasarubali on Puri-Konark Marine Drive Road, out of 4 proposed sites, for the Puri – Sri Jagannath International Airport.

Following their trip, the team held a preliminary discussion with the district administration in this regard.

Source said that the proposed international airport will be established at Sipasarubali on 1000 acres of land in Puri. A six-lane express highway will be built to connect the airport with Bhubaneswar.

Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had requested the Centre for establishing an international airport at Puri, around 60 km away from Bhubaneswar, for which the State government had identified land.