The existing Biju Patnaik airport in the city is on the verge of a major infrastructure upgrade with the construction of a new terminal to cater to international air services expected to be completed by August this year.
Construction work on the international terminal is going on in full swing and the state government has provided an additional 23 acres of land to the airport authorities for starting international air service.
Customs and immigration facilities have been introduced at the domestic airport to offer it a status of a cargo airport.
Chief Secretary B K Patnaik who reviewed the status of the airport on Monday evening has advised the state's nodal land acquisition agency-Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Idco) to convene a meeting of perspective international flight operators. The meeting is aimed at obtaining their views for operating flights between Bhubaneswar and different international locations.
Realising the growing importance of Bhubaneswar as a business destination, international airline operators like Fly Dubai and Air Asia had evinced interest in running their flight operations to and from the city.
The Chief Secretary has also urged Idco to organize a national level workshop involving Ministry of Civil Aviation, Union ministry of home as well as different stakeholders in the aviation sector to showcase Odisha’s perspectives and opportunities in international flight operations. The workshop is set to be organized towards the end of May this year.
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Idco has been asked to prepare a draft civil aviation plan and road map and submit it to the state government for necessary approval before holding the workshop.
Following the commissioning of the new terminal, the Bhubaneswar airport would have an overall passenger handling capacity of 1.93 million per year. It would also have the capacity to handle 20 outgoing and 20 incoming flights every day. Passenger traffic at this airport has witnessed a year-on-year growth of12.81 per cent in 2007-08, 9.67 per cent in 2008-09 and 31.01 per cent in 2009-10.