Surprised over exclusion of Bhubaneswar from the list of proposed international airports in the country, Odisha government today asked the Centre to respect its own notification.
"The state government is at a loss to understand why the Union government is not able to abide by its own decision of operationalising the International Airport at Bhubaneswar published in the International Airport Notification in Extraordinary Gazette of India on 14, November, 2013," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote in a letter to the Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
He said facilities for immigration clearance, health and quarantine were already available at the airport in Bhubaneswar.
"Serious audit objections will also arise for spending public resources on a plan that the Union government conceived, pushed and eventually repudiated. At this juncture, leaving Bhubaneswar out of the list of international Airport in the Draft Aviation Poll, is surprising to say the least," he said.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the state government have already spent public money on the construction of an international airport at Bhubaneswar. The people in Odisha were dismayed at the exclusion of Bhubaneswar from the list of proposed international airports in the country, he said.
"The six metros, which are proposed to act as hubs, will witness expansion of economic activity. These metros are already suffering from high levels of pollution and traffic congestion. Confining the idea of hubs to only six airports will be retrogressive and uneconomical as aircraft have to wait in queues in the sky to be given space in busy airports for landing," the Chief Minister said.
