Bhubaneswar, March 14: The new domestic terminal (T1) of Biju Patnaik Airport began functioning today with the arrival of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar-Port Blair flight here at 7am.

This was followed by a Jet Airways flight landing here from Mumbai and then taking off for Calcutta.

Though a trial run of arrival operations had been done on November 8 last year, things officially got rolling today with both arrival and departures taking place.

Samir Sahu, a senior intensive care expert from the city on his way to Calcutta, said: “I am lucky to be on the first flight from here. The ambience is wonderful.”

Before boarding her flight to New Delhi, Swetapadma Satpathy, a scientist with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Manila, Philippines, said: “I always thought that Bhubaneswar should have a terminal like Bangalore or Hyderabad. Today it has become a reality. The display of flight information in Odia is also a good sign.”

Beijing-based Peter, who works for an engineering consultancy firm in Mumbai and visits his clients in Bhubaneswar frequently, was pleased to take his flight out of the city from the new terminal.

“I am very happy that Bhubaneswar has aviation infrastructure of international quality now,” he said.

Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh inaugurated the new domestic terminal, built at a cost of Rs 145 crore, on March 5.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials hinted at a phase-wise transfer of all operations from the old terminal to the new within a week.

“Within a day or two, we will start the process to convert the old terminal into an international one as the Centre has already given the go-ahead and at least four international operators have evinced interest in flying to foreign destinations from here,” said airport director Sharad Kumar.

Visitors’ pass & spa

From today, the visitor’s entry pass will cost Rs 50 instead of Rs 30 earlier.

“The facilities here and the quality of service are to be compensated partially. That’s why we had to increase the entry charge,” said an AAI official.

However, on the first day, the pre-paid taxi service could not start operations from the new terminal.

“We are waiting near the lounge to provide the service though we had space at the old terminal building. We need proper space so that after they arrive, passengers can use the service,” said D.K. Samal, president of the Lingaraj Taxi Owners’ Union, which claims to be operating the service at Biju Patnaik Airport for the past 25 years.

However, the airport director said no agency had been recognised officially by the AAI to run the pre-paid taxi service.

Things could only move forward once the state government took a decision.

Apart from various services, passengers at the new terminal will have a hassle free journey as all the airlines can operate on a platform called common user terminal equipment (CUTE).

Earlier, passengers had to go to a particular counter of an airlines to get their boarding passes, but now they can use any terminal.

“We are also planning to launch a spa which will be introduced for the first time at any airport of this size in India. It will be ready within two months,” said the airport director.