Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the much-awaited state�s second full-fledged Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) airport to the nation at Western Odisha town of Jharsuguda on Saturday, during his one-day visit to the State.
Apart from inaugurating the Jharsuguda Airport, the maiden flight under UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme from Jharsuguda to Raipur was also flagged off today. With this, Jharsuguda airport becomes the 32nd UDAN airport in the country to be operational.
Modi also flagged off the UDAN flight on Jharsuguda-Raipur sector. The airport will provide connectivity to Bhubaneswar, Raipur and Ranchi under Region Connectivity Scheme (RCS) UDAN.
Inaugurating the airport, Modi said modern infrastructure is the need of the state and country.� The VSS airport has been developed to strengthen the modern infrastructure. The airport is the second biggest airport of Odisha and it will help for the development of the region, he said.
The airport has been developed by the Airports Authority of India in collaboration with Government of Odisha at an estimated cost of Rs 210 crore with a contribution of� 75 crores from the state government. Spread over 1027.5 acres of land, the area of terminal building of the airport is 4,000 square metres.
The terminal building of Jharsuguda airport is an RCC composite structure equipped with state-of-the-art passenger facilities. The terminal building has five check-in counters and one arrival carousel with a peak hour handling capacity of 300 passengers. Apart from the terminal building, the airport infrastructure also includes isolation bay, new technical block-cum-control tower, fire station category-VII, MT workshop and essential navigational and visual aids.
The airport has been developed for all weather operation including night operation for A-320 type of aircraft. With a 2390 metre long runway, the airport will be able to park A-320 type aircraft. The new airport will have a big catchment area including parts of neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Moreover, Modi also dedicated a new railway line of the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) between Jharsuguda-Sardega in Sundargarh district and two new coal mines in Sundargarh district.
Among others, Governor of Odisha, Ganeshi Lal, Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Jual Oram, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan were also present.
