Bhubaneswar: The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Friday provided licence for operation of flights in the Jharsuguda airport, informed joint secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation Usha Padhee in a tweet. After this the airport will become the second operational airport of the state.
Last month, a 10-member team, comprising officials from DGCA and Airports Authority of India (AAI) had visited the airport to grant licencefor operating aircrafts under regional connectivity scheme (RCS) UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik). After getting report from the team, the DGCA approved the licenceFriday, sources said.
Initially, 18-seater aircrafts will be allowed to operate from the airport and later, A-320 type of aircrafts will start their operations from the airport.
Recently, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi had approached civil aviation secretary RN Choubey and AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra to request commercial airliners like Air India, IndiGo, GoAir and AirAsia for exploring introduction of regular commercial flights from the airport.
Meanwhile, welcoming the accordance of licence to Jharsuguda airport Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “Air connectivity will fulfill people’s aspirations and boost socio-economic progress in western Odisha.”
He assured that the state government would provide all support for early operations at the airport.
Jharsuguda airport which has been upgraded to an airport from an airstrip has been developed over 909 acres and 200 more acres will be added to it in the next phase. The state government is trying for regular flight operations from Jharsuguda to cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata besides Bhubaneswar under the UDAN scheme. Four airstrips in state- Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Utkela in Kalahandi and Jeypore in Koraput districts-have been selected in phase-I for implementation of the scheme. The Biju Patnaik International Airport will serve as the mentor airport for the scheme. The average price of a ticket for these flights would be around `2,500.
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