Rourkela: Passengers travelling to Bhubaneswar and Kolkata from here vented their anger and did not mince words as for the second day in succession the Alliance Air flight was cancelled. People were fuming with anger and said that flight connectivity to Rourkela from Bhubaneswar and Kolkata had turned out to be a ‘big joke’ indeed. The airline company officials blamed the delay in the arrival of the flight here as the main reason for the cancellation. The scheduled time of arrival of the flight at the airport here was 2.40 pm.
However, when the ATR aircraft did not arrive even after 4.30 pm, the company had no option but to cancel the flight. This is because of the absence of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the Rourkela airport. With darkness setting in by around 5.00 pm here it would have been extremely difficult and risky for the flight to start from here, officials said. The cancellation angered passenger Akash Das, who was scheduled to travel to Kolkata with his 93-year-old father and another family member. “This entire flight connectivity between Rourkela and Kolkata is turning into a big joke,” Das fumed. “I knew such a situation could emerge, so I had also booked train tickets for tonight. However, other passengers have been left stranded,” he added. Another traveller added that the frequent cancellation of the Kolkata flight is an ‘insult’ to passengers.
A total of 56 tickets had been booked for the flight from here to Kolkata via Bhubaneswar. Twenty-six of the passengers were scheduled to disembark at the Odisha capital. Things have taken a political turn regarding flight cancellations with BJP Odisha president Manoranjan Samal blaming the state government for the predicament of the passengers. “The state government is delaying the installation of the ILS by not transferring the land to the Centre. Till the ILS is set up, passengers will continue to suffer,” Samal had said recently during his visit to this city. Former SEFI secretary and now president of Sachetan Nagarika Mancha, Bimal Bisi also blamed the state government for the delay in land acquisition for setting up the ILS.
