Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S Puri, requesting his personal intervention in launching direct flights between Bhubaneswar and Dubai at the earliest.
In a letter, Pradhan said that Odisha is emerging as a growth-engine for Eastern India and hence there is a need to improve direct international connectivity to the State’s Capital city Bhubaneswar which will further boost the region’s development prospects.
Bhubaneswar is connected internationally via direct flight to only one destination i.e. Bangkok, Thailand. There has been a long pending request from various quarters for introducing a direct flight from Bhubaneswar to Dubai, UAE.
“There are more than 15000 Odia people residing in different parts of the United Arab Emirates who are forced to undertake an indirect route for travelling to Odisha. I also understand the Odia Society of UAE had a meeting with GM Air India Middle-East and Africa regarding the viability of a direct Air India flight between Bhubaneswar and Dubai based on favourable traffic data between these destinations,” he said in the letter.
As Bhubaneswar is known as an educational, healthcare and tourist centre, he appealed to the Centre to introduce a direct flight connecting these two destinations.
“Bhubaneswar is an educational healthcare, cultural and tourist hub with rich potential for medical tourism, cultural tourism and educational exchange programmes. Keeping mind the welfare of commuters to and from Bhubaneswar-Dubai and larger potential for development of Odisha, I request your personal intervention in launching a direct flight between Bhubaneswar and Dubai at the earliest,” he wrote in the letter.
PNN