Rourkela: Flight services from Smart City Rourkela are hit with serious roadblocks due to frequent cancellations as flights were called off as many as eight times during the last six months, a report said Sunday. Flights are being cancelled due to bad weather conditions and low visibility, airport officials said. The authorities are cancelling the flights as the visibility is going down below 5,000 metres most of the time. The Rourkela Airport received a license for flight services in 2019 while the permission for commencing flight services was received in December 2022. Flight services from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar are continuing while demands are being made for the launching of direct flight services from Rourkela to Kolkata and Bangalore. Reports said that for a long time, residents had been demanding flight services from Smart City Rourkela, which is also the industrial capital of Odisha.
As many as 20 multi-purpose projects like the establishment of XIMB, a medical college, and other important projects were relocated to other places due to the absence of flight services in the city. Finally, flight services were launched from the city after a long-standing and persistent demand. The flight services were launched from the city during the FIH and state government-sponsored Hockey World Cup. However, flight services, which started from the city January 7 this year, have been hit with serious roadblocks with uncertainty prevailing over the services. According to reports, flight services have been cancelled eight times in six months.
Authorities are forced to cancel the services due to bad weather conditions and low visibility. This was stated here by Airport Manager Rahul Singh of the Airport Authority of India (AAI). He said the problem could be avoided if the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) is installed in the airport on an immediate basis. He said the air here has more smoke as Rourkela is an industrial city. The standard parameter for the landing flights is that the visibility should be above 5,000 metre.
However, it is often reduced to 2,000 to 3,000 metres. As a result, the airport authorities are forced to order cancellation of flights and force the flights to land at other nearby airports. The ILS, if installed, will give advance information on air quality and low visibility and reduce the number of flight cancellations, he said. He said that flights are being cancelled for the safety of the passengers and there is the possibility of cancellation of more flights in the coming rainy season. On the other hand, Bimal Bisi, president of the citizen forum Sachetan Nagarik Manch shot off a letter to the Union Aviation Minister, Friday. The copies of his letter have been forwarded to the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, and the Sundargarh MP.
In the letter, he alleged that the frequent cancellation of flights will have a direct impact on the proposed medical hub and IT hub in Rourkela. It will not be possible for senior healthcare professionals and doctors with the Apollo Hospital group to plan for the establishment of a hospital in the city. The visit of senior professors and educationists to the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela will get affected while bad weather conditions will further affect the flight services adversely during the rainy season. He said there is an urgent need for the installation of ILS and demanded a sanction of Rs 6 crore for its implementation.
