Sambalpur-Bhubaneswar flights from December on the anvil

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Sambalpur, Nov 26:

Thousands of people travel from Sambalpur to Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri everyday. Many people commute to Bhubaneswar from Sambalpur through their private cars or rented vehicles, where they have to spend around Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 for hiring a private car to the capital.

The journey takes a tiring 6 to 8 hours, which effectively can waste your whole day. Now those are worries of the past, as travellers from Sambalpur can fly to Bhubaneswar in an hour’s time and at less cost of Rs 2,500.

A person can finish off their work and come back in an hour’s time from the capital. Very soon Sambalpur-Bhubaneswar flights will make this possible. Odisha government has given a green light to Air Odisha Aviation Private limited (AOAPL) to start operations. The project is at its final stages and if everything goes as planned the passanger flights from Bhubaneswar to Sambalpur and vice versa will start from the first or second week of December.

The exact date of the flights has not been finalized, for a smooth opening there has been a meeting between the Air Odisha and the district officials. The Air officials have ascertained the air strip in Jamadarpali area of Sambalpur for the purpose.

The Air Odisha has plans to connect Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Jeypore and Raipur in the near future. Out of the four airstrips in the state, the Sambalpur airstrip is in the best condition, the Air Odisha captain Santosh has said. Sambalpur air strip, run up, boundary, environment are kept in a well maintained manner. Flights can take off and land here without any obstacles.

The flights will also run in the four other places in the state. In the first phase the flights will run for 6 days in a week except Sundays. The same plane will come to Bhubaneswar and retun everyday. The timing have not been fixed till now, after the timings have been fixed, seeing the passenger demand the flights will be for all 7 days and the plane will do two rounds in a day.

Sambalpur to Bhubaneswar flights will cost anywhere between, Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000, according to sources.  In the initial phase, a 9 seater chartered plane will fly, which will be upgraded to passenger plane later. Around 6 seats will be booked for government servants in the flights. The distance between Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar is 130 nautical miles.