BHUBANESWAR: The Centre on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that the state government’s proposal for a greenfield airport at Puri has been sent to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the Ministry of Defence for clearance.
Responding to a query from BJD MP Sasmit Patra, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (Retd) VK Singh, said as per Green Field Airport Policy, 2008, the proposal has been sent to the concerned stakeholders including AAI, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) for their comments.
After completion of this consultation with stakeholders, the proposal is required to be placed before the steering committee on greenfield airports for their recommendation, with respect to the award of site clearance.
As per the GFA Policy, the responsibility of implementation of airport projects including funding of the project, land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) rests with the airport developer concerned including the state government (in case the state is the project proponent).
The timeline for the construction of airports depends upon various factors like land acquisition, mandatory clearances, removal of obstacles, and financial closure by the respective airport developers.
Singh said the AAI has completed expansion/upgradation works at its Jharsuguda and Rourkela airports. At Jharsuguda, the expansion of the apron for four AB-320 types of aircraft with a new link taxiway and allied works has been completed and Rourkela Airport has been upgraded from Code 2B to 2C.
AAI has also undertaken expansion works at Bhubaneswar Airport including the construction of a link building between Terminal-1 and Terminal- 2 for integrated operations using a passenger boarding bridge (PBB), construction of a parallel taxi track (PTT) and rapid exit taxiway (RET) (Phase-II), resurfacing of runway and conversion of category-I lighting to category-II lighting system.
The total expenditure incurred so far for these development works is Rs 196.97 crore and the projected expenditure in 2023-24 for works is Rs 139 crore.
The minister further said that airstrips at Amarda, Jeypore, Jharsuguda, Rangeilunda, Rourkela and Utkela have been identified for development under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN and to operate flights under this scheme. Flight operations have commenced from Jharsuguda, Jeypore and Rourkela airports after the revival of these airports.