Jeypore: An eight-member team of officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) visited the Jeypore airport Monday to take stock of the progress in infrastructure development for resumption of flight services under the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme.
The team led by Usha Padhee, joint secretary in civil aviation ministry, reviewed the infrastructure for operation of flights under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS).
After inspection, the Odisha-cadre IAS held a meeting where senior officials of the team -additional director VK Bandopadhyay of the BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security), executive director Vineet Gulati of the AAI, deputy director of DGCA Manoj Garg, Koraput MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati, Koraput collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty, Koraput SP Kanwar Vishal Singh, SE of Jeypore (R&B) Circle Nabin Chandra Dora, and EE of Jaypore (R and B) Tapan Panigrahi.
The construction work for the airport, developed jointly by AAI and the state government, had begun in 2016. While September 2017 was the deadline set for completion of the works, the state-level co-ordination and monitoring committee had in September last decided to operationalise the airport by February this year. However, the works have not been completed even after three months of the revised target.
The officials discussed the impediments in the way of completion of the works.
Notably, DGCA accorded licence 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, and ticket bookings have already begun.
Jharsuguda, Utkela, Jeypore and Rourkela were the four airports chosen from the state under the UDAN scheme.
