JHARSUGUDA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) airport in Jharsuguda to people of Odisha on Saturday. The State got its second airport 56 years after the Bhubaneswar airport.
Modi also flagged off the UDAN flight on Jharsuguda-Raipur air route. The airport will provide connectivity to Bhubaneswar, Raipur and Ranchi under Region Connectivity Scheme (RCS), UDAN.
Inaugurating the airport, Modi said modern infrastructure is the need of the State and country. “The VSS airport has been developed to strengthen the modern infrastructure. It is the second biggest airport in Odisha and will help in development of region,” he said.
The airport has been developed by the Airports Authority of India in collaboration with Government of Odisha at an estimated cost of `210 crore with a contribution of `75 crore from the State Government. Spread over 1027.5 acres of land, the area of terminal building of the airport is 4,000 sq mtrs.
Terminal building of the airport is equipped with state-of-the-art passenger facilities. It has five check-in counters and one arrival carousel with peak hour handling capacity of 300 passengers. Apart from the terminal building, the airport includes isolation bay, new technical block-cum-control tower, fire station category-VII, MT workshop and essential navigational and visual aids.
The airport has been developed for all weather operation for A-320 type of aircraft. With a 2390 mtr-long runway, the airport will be able to park A-320 type aircraft. The new airport will have a big catchment area including parts of neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
The Prime Minister also dedicated a new railway line of the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) between Jharsuguda and Sardega in Sundargarh district and two new coal mines in Sundargarh district.Governor of Odisha Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu, Union Minster of Tribal Affairs Jual Oram, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan were present.
Ashram school students on inaugural flight
Jharsuguda: A 13-year-old, Kabita Oram, who is a student of Class VIII of Ashram School at Beheramal in Jharsuguda town, had never imagined that it would be possible for her to travel by air. But the inauguration of the second airport of the State at Jharsuguda made her dream come true. Kabita said, “I was very delighted. This was the first time I saw a flight from so near. Earlier, I had seen the plane flying in the sky or television.” Similar sentiments were echoed by other seven students of the school who were endowed with the opportunity to fly from Jharsuguda to Raipur in the first flight of Udan scheme that was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. The eight students, including five girls, were accompanied by three teachers. A teacher of the school Jayanti Pujahari said the students will come back to Jharsuguda by road.