BHUBANESWAR: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has been asked to carry out pre-feasibility study for an international airport near Puri town, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
In his reply to an unstarred question by Rajya Sabha member Sujit Kumar, Puri said Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had requested the Centre for establishing an international airport at Puri for which the State government had identified land close to the town.
A meeting was held by Union Civil Aviation Secretary, officials of Odisha government, AAI and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on January 12 in connection with the proposed airport project.
“In the meeting, the AAI was asked to carry out pre-feasibility study of the site based on the data provided by the State government,” Puri said. On January 1, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding an international airport named after Lord Jagannath at Puri.