Berhampur: The then Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapati Raju had promised June 14, 2016, to upgrade the Rangeilunda airstrip near here into a full-fledged airport.
He had made the promise during a visit to Berhampur while receiving a memorandum from the district BJP leaders and other outfits. Now, Gajapati Raju is no longer a minister at the Centre with his party TDP severing its ties with the NDA government. Nor is there any sign of the promised airport at Rangeilunda.
Pitabas Panda, president of the district Congress, has warned of an agitation if the promise made by Raju is not fulfilled by the state and Central government. Panda claims it is essential to develop the airstrip into a full-fledged airport as senior doctors, professors of MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur University, IREL, IISER and businessmen from the city fly out and in frequently.
They either have to go to Visakhapatnam or Bhubaneswar to take a flight for their destination which is time consuming and expensive, Panda said.
He lamented that Prime Minister Narendra Modi while inaugurating the Jharsuguda airport recently had assured the people of developing the airstrips in Koraput, Kalahandi and Sundargarh districts but made no mention of making the Rangeilunda airstrip operational. He termed it as a step-motherly attitude of the Centre and warned that his party will build up a people’s movement till their demand is met.
Even as the state government had initiated steps to upgrade the pre-independence era airstrip at Rangeilunda into an airport about five years back, the snail’s pace of the project has pushed its future into uncertainty.
The government had approved the expansion project in 2012 and sanctioned grants but not a single brick has been laid so far, said some locals.
According to reports, the British government had set up the airstrip in 1936 for airlifting arms during the World War II. Post-Independence, it became unusable due to lack of upkeep. Neither the Centre nor the state government paid heed to the demands of Ganjam people for renovation of the airstrip.
On the other hand, Berhampur, considered a commercial hub of southern Orissa, saw a rapid growth, both population and industry wise, in the last several years. Despite this development and the presence of tourist destinations like Chilika Lake and Gopalpur Port, the district couldn’t attract many visitors mainly because of poor connectivity.
With growing public demand for upgrade of the airstrip, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, during his visit to Berhampur in 2012, had given green signal to convert it into an airport. A three-member team from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) also visited the spot and sent a plan outlay for the approval of the state government. The state government sanctioned Rs 51.50 crore for land acquisition and airport construction. The district administration and road and building department were asked to execute the work.
However, the project got stuck at the land acquisition stage. According to reports, a patch 1,800mt in length and 450mt in width is required for runway/airport while the existing strip is only 850mt X 200mt. So, another 370 acres of land were required to be acquisitioned and an agreement between the administration and local people was made in 2013. Though the acquisition process began at that time, the construction of the airport is yet to begin which raises questions about the sincerity of the local representatives.
PNN