BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has decided to facilitate air connectivity between Rourkela and Kolkata. The direct air services will reduce the travel time between the two cities to 1.30 hours. The chief minister’s office said the Rourkela-Kolkata route will be a state-sponsored route for which the government will provide viability gap funding for 35 seats of the capacity with a fare cap. The inaugural one-way fare will start from Rs 1,999.
Alliance Air has been entrusted to run the flight thrice a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The ATR-72 aircraft of Alliance Air, which was earlier operating in the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar route, will modify its flight schedule to connect Rourkela with Kolkata. Sources said, the flight will take off from Rourkela at 3.50 pm and land in Kolkata at 5.20 pm. On the return journey, it will leave Kolkata at 11 am and arrive in Rourkela at 12.30 pm.
Once the Kolkata flight is introduced, the service from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar will also be rescheduled. While the flight will leave Rourkela at 12.55 pm and reach Bhubaneswar at 2 pm, it will depart from Bhubaneswar at 2.30 pm and reach Rourkela at 3.10 pm.
However, the normal operation of the flight on the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar route will continue for seven days in a week. Alliance Air was picked as the selected airline operator for the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar route through bidding under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN.
This flight service between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar was started before the Men’s World Cup hockey this year. The direct flight between Rourkela and Kolkata, which was to commence on Tuesday, was cancelled at the last moment for technical reasons. The fresh date will be announced soon.
Meanwhile, Alliance Air has announced to resume the flight services between Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda from Wednesday with a one-way fare of Rs 1,999. It will run four times a week - Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The flight will leave Bhubaneswar at 4.15 pm and reach Jharsuguda at 5.30 pm. On the return direction, it will depart Jharsuguda at 5.55 pm and arrive in Bhubaneswar at 7.05 pm. The flight is also financially supported by the state government.