New Delhi: Passengers from Orissa who would like to visit cities like Allahabad and Nagpur will have direct flights to these places from Bhubaneswar within six months.
This would be part of the UDAN Phase II scheme under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry. The new routes and the successful selection of bidders were announced by the ministry in the capital Wednesday.
The ministry selected 73 new connecting points (airports/helipads) under RCS. The ministry which refrained from announcing any new airport for Orissa, however, revealed a new route on which direct flights are expected.
The flights to Allahabad from Bhubaneswar would be operated by Indigo under the RCS scheme. However, sources at the ministry told this newspaper that the same flight connecting Allahabad and Bhubaneswar would fly to Nagpur too although it is not an RCS route. Thus Bhubaneswar would be directly linked to Allahabad and Nagpur under UDAN Phase II.
On why new names from Orissa were not included among the 73 new airports, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju told Orissa POST, “First Jharsuguda airport must be made ready. It is a market-driven thing. This year it has not happened. We hope it happens in future.” Ministry sources claimed that no bids were made for new routes from Orissa by airlines and so no new airports were given to Orissa.
Manish Kumar, OP