BHAWANIPATNA: A four-member team from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) visited Utkela airstrip in Kalahandi on Friday for inspection of the compliance parametres and interacted with the district administration and PWD officials.
Utkela, which is around 15 km away from Bhawanipatna, is listed under the Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme. The Ministry of Civil Aviation had allotted Rs 16 crore in 2016-17 for its development. It is now reportedly complete with necessary civil and infrastructure works in place.
After inspection, the team reported that the airstrip is ready and can get final approval and licence for commercial landing of 16-seater planes. After Jharsuguda and Jeypore, Utkela airstrip will soon have flights to and from Raipur and Bhubaneswar, they informed.
Besides, completion of 915-metre-long runway, other infrastructure facilities like terminal building, control room, overhead water tank, rest room, fire service barrack, taxi way, boundary wall as per specification and Long T precision path approach indicator have been installed and security related compliances met, the members stated.