Biju Patnaik Airport to get international tag soon
By Express News Service - BHUBANESWAR
22nd November 2012 10:48 AM
Biju Patnaik Airport here will soon be upgraded to international standard. This was stated by Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary K N Srivastava during his meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here on Wednesday.
Srivastava said the work for new terminal of the airport will be completed by December second week. The new terminal will become operational by January, 2013, he said.
Srivastava said the proposal to accord international status to Biju Patnaik Airport here will be brought before the Union Cabinet in April next year after completion of all necessary work.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had assured Naveen during their meeting in September that necessary steps are being taken to upgrade the domestic airport to international standard at the earliest.
The Ministry had also stated that it will advise Air India and other domestic airlines to start international operations from Bhubaneswar.
Development of airports at Jharsuguda, Jeypore and Gopalpur were discussed at the Wednesday’s meeting. The Chief Minister raised the issue of restarting air connectivity between Kolkata-Bhubaneswar and Chennai-Bhubaneswar.
Naveen, who had met Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh in New Delhi in September, had raised the issue of infrastructure inadequacy in the aviation sector for air connectivity within the State.
Singh had suggested during discussions that Odisha should explore the possibility of developing Jharsuguda airport in public private partnership (PPP) mode.
On development of Gopalpur and Jeypore airstrips, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expected to take up feasibility studies.
The Chief Minister said there is an urgent need to provide infrastructure support to the aviation sector in the State for ensuring unhindered industrialisation and flow of tourist traffic to Odisha.
Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister A P Padhi, AAI Chairman V P Agrawal, Commerce and Transport department Secretary G Mathivathanan and senior officials were present.
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Comments(2)
About 10 thousand people from Odisha are working in Gulf countries mostly in Kuwait,U.A.E,Bahrain and Muscat and facing lot of problem to come and go to Odisha as there is no direct flight from any gulf country.Hence action should be taken to upgrade Biju Patnaik Airport to International forthwith and request Emirates,Jet airline,Indigo,AirIndia to start immediate operation from Kuwait via Dubai-Kolkata or Dubai-Bhubaneswar direct.
Posted by Lakshmidhar Balabantaroy at 02/26/2013 17:34 Reply to this Report abuse
yah,there is lot of problem 4 us 2 go odisha.we need international airport 4 tourists&visitors,who want 2 come 2 odisha.
Posted by asith kumar pradhan at 03/07/2013 17:14 Reply to this Report abuse