Odisha: Officials inspect Jeypore airport for UDAN clearance

Jeypore: An eight-member team, comprising officials from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) today visited the Jeypore airport to take stock of infrastructure development for resumption of flight services under UDAN (Ude desh ka aam naagrik) scheme.

The team led by Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Civil Aviation reviewed the infrastructure for operation of flights under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS).

After inspection, the Odisha-cadre IAS held meeting where senior officials of the team – VK Bandopadhyay Additional Director, BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security), Vineet Gulati, Executive Director of AAI, Manoj Garg, Deputy Director of DGCA, Koraput MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati, Koraput Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty, Koraput SP Kanwar Vishal Singh, SE of Jeypore (R&B) Circle Nabin Chandra Dora, and Tapan Panigrahi EE of Jeypore (R&B).

The construction work of the airport developed jointly by AAI and the state government had begun in 2016. While September 2017 was the deadline set for completion of work, the state-level co-ordination and monitoring committee had in September last decided to operationalise it by February this year. However, the same hasn’t been completed even after three months of the revised target.

The officials discussed on the impediments leading to delay in completion of work for which grant for license to operate is being pushed further.

Notably, DGCA accorded license to Jharsuguda airport earlier this month making it the second airport in the state to offer air connectivity. The airport in the western Odisha town will operate from June 14 for which ticket bookings have already begun.

Worth mentioning, Jharsuguda, Utkela, Jeypore and Rourkela from state were the four airports chosen under UDAN scheme.