ROURKELA: Resumption of commercial flight operations in Rourkela seems to have run into rough weather owing to technical issues and apathy of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP)-run airport in the city is licensed for B2 operations. GM (Planning)-II of Ministry of Civil Aviation VSP Chinson said valid bids have been received from airlines to operate flights from the Steel City under RCS-UDAN scheme to Bhubaneswar (Alliance Air and Turbo Aviation) and Raipur (Turbo Aviation) using ATR-72 aircraft. However, no bids have been received for operating ATR-42 type of aircraft from the airline operators.
RSP Executives’ Association (RSPEA) president and Steel Executives’ Federation of India (SEFI) general secretary Bimal Bisi said in January, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had replaced the private licence of Rourkela airport with commercial licence of B2 category. “It is most unfortunate and surprising that the ready to use airport is capable of handling ATR-42 type aircraft, but the DGCA’s B2 licence allows operation of 22-seaters only. The length of the runway is 1.82 km and necessary infrastructure addition and modification were done by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) recently,” he said. Bisi said before the modification, two large aircraft carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had landed at the airport in 2014 and 2015.
Incidentally, two separate teams of AAI in 2007 and 2014, after surveys, had concluded the airport was ready to handle ATR-42 type aircraft with minor modifications.Bisi wondered why the airport was given B2 category licence in the first place after necessary modification done by the AAI. He said five years back, SAIL had given consent to allow additional land for expansion of the airport to accommodate ATR-72 type, but no attempt was made to that effect and now technical issues are hindering the RCS operations.
Meanwhile, airport and RSP sources said the airport is technically confined to handle 22-seater aircraft and cannot immediately opt for expansion due to some land dispute. They said another bidding process for Rourkela route is underway and talks are underway for further expansion of the airport to accommodate ATR-72 type aircraft.