Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday inaugurated the newly constructed Malkangiri Airport in the southwestern part of Odisha.
Spread over an area of 233 acre, the airport is located in Katelguda in Goudaguda panchayat area. It has been developed at a cost of Rs70 crore and has a 1,620-meter long and 30-metre wide runway, an official said.
With this, the number of operational airports in the state has gone up to seven. The other six are located in Bhubaneswar, Jharsuguda, Jeypore in Koraput, Utkela in Kalahandi, Rourkela in Sundergarh and Rangeilunda in Ganjam.
Patnaik said the new airport was a “dream come true” for the people of the tribal-dominated Swabiman Anchal, once considered the hotbed of Maoist activities.
“The air connectivity to Malkangiri will usher in a new era of development, open up avenues of business and tourism, and further transform the lives of the people in the region,” he said.
Patnaik also announced a Rs4,000-crore integrated irrigation project at Govindpalli, which will help irrigate 92,815 acre of agricultural land and provide drinking water to 1.5 lakh people. The work for the project will start by July 2024, an official said.
Ahead of the inauguration, a trial run of a VT-100 flight was conducted successfully at the airport Sunday.
Taking to social media, the Chief Minister had said, “Glad to share that the first trial flight has landed successfully at Malkangiri Airport, ahead of commercial operations. Air connectivity to Malkangiri will usher in a new era of development, open up avenues of business and tourism, and further transform the lives of people in the region.”
The airport’s runway is 1,500 metre in length and 30 metre in width. In the first phase, nine-seat aircraft are likely to operate from the airport while larger aircraft will provide services later.
Authorities of the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in Bhubaneswar have provided necessary technical assistance for making the Malkangiri Airport operational. The airport has been constructed on over 94.5 hectares of land at an expenditure of around Rs33 crore.
The functioning of the airport is expected to bring rapid economic development in the region. This is the second significant connectivity project in the district after the Gurupriya bridge, which was inaugurated by the Chief Minister in 2018. The bridge has been providing road connectivity between the cutoff areas of the district (Swabhimana Anchala) and the mainland.
PNN & Agencies