Union civil aviation minister Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Monday announced the ministry had given the green signal for the Shree Jagannath International Airport project and work would begin soon
Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had advised him to first visit the proposed Puri airport site before pushing the project further.
“Have you seen the site?” Modi asked, Majhi recalled at the Eastern Regional Ministers’ Conference on Civil Aviation. “When I said no, he told me to see it first, since flights would land from the seaside and care must be taken to ensure there is no harm to anything.”
Majhi thanked Modi and Naidu, calling the airport “a spiritual and cultural gateway for crores of Jagannath devotees”.
The chief minister also announced a programme to encourage tribal youth, especially girls, to become pilots, with a world-class training centre planned at Birashal in Dhenkanal. Odisha has also signed an agreement with Air-Works for an MRO facility, expected to create jobs.
Naidu praised Bhubaneswar airport’s “flybrary” initiative and inaugurated a children’s play arena. He said Terminal 3 was in planning and stressed the UDAN scheme’s success in expanding access.
He also announced seaplane services from October, including in Chilika. MoS Murlidhar Mohol added that the Modi government was “setting up an airport in 40 days”, with Puri airport to follow soon.
