BHUBANESWAR: The proposed international airport at Puri has moved one step further with the state government submitting additional details sought by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) along with the bird and wetland study reports and seeking statutory clearances at the earliest.
The site at Sipasarubali is accessible from NH 316 connecting Bhubaneswar and Puri. The proposed Shree Jagannath International Airport (SJIA) has been planned to be developed in phased manner. The projected passenger traffic for the first phase is estimated to be 3.71 million per annum (MPPA), which will increase up to 14.6 MPPA by FY 2043-45. Initially, it has been estimated that around 100 flights will operate per day.
The Commerce and Transport department, which is the project proponent of the airport, claimed that the forest type of area, for which conversion has been applied, is tropical dry deciduous moderate forest covered mostly with casuarina, cashew and acacia species which were initially planted during 1970-80.
Based on the canopy and crown density of the area, the vegetation is considered as moderate dense forest having density of 0.4 to 0.5 and the area comes under eco-value Class-III. A total 13,504 trees of 1,291 species will be felled for the project, the report said.
The project area, it said, doesn’t include important habitat for birds and animals. Around 63 species of birds belonging to 39 families were observed during the January-April study. There was no endangered bird sighted in the study area as most of the birds are common and resident while a few winter visitor birds were found in the local forest areas.
As recommended in the wetland study, the department has assured to monitor the biodiversity of the area during the construction phase. A biodiversity management plan of the surrounding areas will be prepared before the operational phase of the airport.
Adequate mitigation measures will be provided during the construction phase to ensure that there is no considerable damage to either local population (villages) or any existing streams/nullahs. The Samang lake, which is about 6 km aerial distance from the airport site, will be developed.
“Since the proposed project area is vulnerable to tsunami and cyclones due to its proximity to the coast of Bay of Bengal, cyclone shelters will be planned as part of mitigation measures. Moreover, a comprehensive disaster management plan will be prepared in order to strengthen the efforts to mitigate the impact of hazards,” the Transport department informed EAC.
The state government has also submitted the techno-economic feasibility report prepared by global consulting firm Deloitte on the potential traffic for the proposed airport. It forecast that the number of international passengers may rise from 0.32 million in FY 2025 to 2.51 million in FY 2055.
