Bhubaneswar: A new airport, meant to handle small and light aircraft, will come up in Paradip shortly, according to an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) who also added that construction for the third terminal at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here will begin soon.
Other than BPIA, Odisha also has airports at Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Utkela and Jeypore. The Jharsuguda airport is expected to be fully functional by March while those in Rourkela, Utkela in Kalahandi district and Jeypore are expected to be operational by this year.
The development of the airport at Paradip is a joint venture of AAI, Paradip Port Trust and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). A MoU was also signed for the project last month. While Paradip Port Trust will manage the airport, the AAI will provide the technical assistance.
“The airport coming up at Paradip will be for small aircraft. Sixteen to 29-seater planes can land,” said AAI chairman Guru Prasad Mohapatra here, Saturday. He also said that the number of terminals at BPIA will be increased to three from the two at present. “The construction work for the third terminal at the BPIA will begin September onwards. The project cost is approximately Rs 900 crore,” stated Mohapatra.
Foundation stone for the link building, parallel tracks for aircraft to taxi and additional parking bays were laid Saturday at BPIA in presence of Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram, Mohapatra and BPIA director Suresh Chandra Hota.
Mohapatra informed that BPIA currently can handle 3,00,000 passengers. Once the third terminal is complete, the capacity will go up 3.5 lakhs annually.
Currently the runways at the BPIA can handle arrival and departures of 12 to 13 aircraft in an hour. Once the parallel taxi tracks are built, the capacity will go up to 25 aircraft per hour.
The number of parking bays will also increase to 18 from the eight present. Work on these two projects is to be completed in the next eight months at a cost of Rs 150 crore, informed Mohapatra.
PNN