Bhubaneswar: Even after the passing of one year to the inauguration of Malkangiri airstrip, no airline is ready to start flight operation from the airstrip.
The then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had inaugurated the airstrip in the tribal hinterland in January 2024 and flagged off the airline service.
However, the flight service has never been regularized since then. The airstrip has remained idle for more than a year as no other flight landed there till now.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha today, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said that Malkangiri airstrip is available in the list of unserved airports in the UDAN Document for bidding.
“None of the airline bidders has so far submitted the proposal for the operation of RCS flights from Malkangiri airstrip till the completion of five rounds of bidding under the scheme,” he said.
UDAN is a market-driven ongoing scheme where bidding rounds are conducted from time to time to cover more destinations/ stations and routes, he said.
Mohol further informed that the interested airlines, based on their assessment of demand on particular routes, submit their proposals at the time of bidding under UDAN. Selected Airline Operators (SAOs) commence operations on the awarded UDAN routes connecting these airports.
The Union Minister also said that the Centre has not received any proposal from the State Government or any airport developer for construction of a greenfield airport at Rangeilunda in Ganjam district.
Government of India (GoI) has formulated a Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008 for development of new Greenfield airports in the country. As per the GFA policy, if any airport developer including the State Government desires to develop an airport, they are required to identify a suitable site and get the Prefeasibility Study conducted for construction of airport and submit a proposal to the Central Government for ‘Site Clearance’ followed by ‘In-Principle’ approval, he pointed out.
However, the GoI has not received any proposal for ‘Site Clearance’ under GFA Policy for construction of a greenfield airport at Rangeilunda.