Jharsuguda : Airport Authority of India Chairman Guru Prasad Mohapatra on Friday said that the Jharsuguda Airport will be completed by April – June 2018, which is four to five months before the scheduled target of completion.
He had reached Jharsuguda on Friday and had reviewed the project in a meeting held with the AAI Officials, Jharsuguda District Administration and Contractors of the ongoing project. �He also met with the local people and had discussed over the project completion.
He said that ” Jharsuguda Airport is one of the most important projects for AAI, the importance of this airport is because this is among few airports which is being developed by the State Government and AAI through MOU.
In this regard, we are quite grateful to the Odisha State Government that the Land is given free of cost along with the financial contributions also. Till now Bhubaneswar is the only fully functional commercial airport in the Odisha. By developing Jharsuguda, the western part of Odisha will be directly connected with the Coastal Odisha as well as to various others parts of the Country. Jharsuguda being well connected with road and railway only air link was missing.
We want to complete the project, four to five months before the Scheduled Target and are quite hopeful that, the work of this airport will be completed in between April to June 2018.
Jharsuguda has a good Potential as it lies middle of Rourkela, Sambalpur, Sundergarh. Additionally the presence of many Educational Institution and big Steel and Aluminium Industries, Coalfields etc. Even, Odisha’s economic affluent is increasing and many frequent travellers are preferring travelling through airline over rails. There is hardly the difference between the discounted airfare and 2nd Class AC.
Recent Central Governments Regional Connectivity Scheme will also give the boost for the Airline companies. The bidding process is currently going on for three airports i.e Rourkela, Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda. In this Scheme, the airline companies who would operate from these airports would get many subsidies by both State and Central Government and it will be cheaper for them to operate from this location.”
