JEYPORE: After a delay of four months, the Jeypore airstrip may finally be operational soon as the district administration wrapped up all the remaining upgradation works ahead of the visit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) team on Friday for final verification.
On Tuesday, a team of district administration officials led by Collector Md Abdaal Akhtar visited the airstrip for a final review after the remaining works like fencing and pothole repairs were completed. The Civil Aviation Ministry had selected Jeypore airstrip under its flagship UDAN scheme to foster regional connectivity in 2017 and work had begun only two years back.
The Public Works department of Jeypore division was executing the construction activities as per norms. In April this year, upgradation of the runway to 30 meter width and 1,200 meter length was finally completed along with other infrastructure development including security quarters, control room, terminals and amenities for passengers.
Following completion, a team of traffic control authorities had visited the airstrip to review the ground realities and submitted a report to the Civil Aviation Ministry for further progress. Later that month, Civil Aviation joint secretary Usha Padhee too made a visit and announced that a 10-seater plane will fly from Jeypore to Bhubaneswar via Visakhapatnam from June 1.
However, the flight operations were put on hold as Civil Aviation Ministry officials reportedly raised security concerns and sought some further changes to be done by the administration.
Contacted, executive engineer of Jeypore PWD Bhaskar Chandra Samantaray informed that the airstrip will be operational soon after the DGCA team’s visit. "We have already completed the remaining requirements as sought by DGCA and flight operations should start after getting its final nod," he added.