ROURKELA: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has urged the Ministry of Civil Aviation to initiate urgent steps to equip the airport at steel city with Instrument Landing System (ILS) and Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Range facilities to enable the landing of aircraft at night and during poor visibility conditions.
At present, one flight is being operated from the airport to Bhubaneswar under the UDAN scheme of the Central government. However, due to a lack of facilities like ILS, flight operation has been disrupted five times in the last three months, including three consecutive days from March 16 to 18.
The disruption in operation has caused dissatisfaction among passengers as is evident from the average bookings which have dropped from 70 per cent to 40-50 per cent. Sources said, the RSP sent the letter to director of the Ministry of Civil Aviation on March 25.
Rourkela is a Visual Flight Rules airport requiring a minimum of five km visibility. If the situation prevails, flight services will be affected during monsoon, the letter further stated. Citing an increase in demand for air travel from industries, medical, academic and sports institutions, RSP impressed upon the Ministry to introduce more routes under the UDAN scheme. Now a Code 2C airport, the RSP suggested the Ministry consider implementing the original plan of developing it into a Code 3C airport.
It said only 35 acres of 146 acres of additional land earmarked for the airport has been utilised.