WHY NOT AIRPORT IN BERHAMPUR (?).
Bureau,Odishabarta
BERHAMPUR:Despite 25 long years of demand of the people of Ganjam, many hurdles are coming for the establishment of a Domestic & Cargo Airport in Berhampur city, Ganjam, Odisha
Noteworthy, the ‘Odisha Development Forum’ submitted memorandum to PMO, CMO Odisha, Union Civil Aviation Ministry and other concerned authorities several times on this issue and got assurances on the early establishment of Berhampur Airport in Ganjam.
Despite Centres assurance, Odisha govt knowingly neglecting and showing step-motherly attitude for the establishment of Berhampur Airport. Neither it neither establishes the Airport nor includes it in UDDAN scheme.
The Expansion of 2nd world war time Rangailunda, Berhampur, Airstrip was initiated by the Department of Civil Aviation in 2008 and the central government included Berhampur in the list of 49 low cost Airports.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for a domestic Airport in Berhampur in 2016.
Former Union Civil aviation Minister in Modi government 1.0 Ashok Gajapathi Raju promised for the establishment of a Domestic and a Cargo Airport in #Berhampur during his visit in 2016.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also wrote to Union Minister of Civil aviation in Feb 2020 for the establishment of Brahmapur Airport.
Now Civil Aviation Dept. and Odisha govt jointly establishing airports in Rourkela (just 90 km from Jharsuguda airport and in small towns of Odisha like Utkela,Dhamara, Jeypore but not in Berhampur. Why they are doing So (?), though, Berhampur is the 2nd biggest urban cluster and an emerging city in East coast of India.
WHY AIRPORT IN BRAHMAPUR (?).
Apart from Bhubaneswar if any city has potentiality to run an Airport is Berhampur.
As per media reports, around 40% passengers to BBSR Airport & 25% passengers to Vizag comes from this region.
Berhampur city is 185 km from Bhubaneswar airport & 255 km from Vizag Airport.
An Airstrip build in 1930s is already existing in Berhampur University campus new patch of land was already earmarked in CDP- Berhampur in 2016.
Berhampur is a commercial city with around 7 lakh populations and the population of Ganjam District alone is around 40 lakhs.
People of 12 districts also depend on Berhampur for various purposes daily
for Business, Education like IISER, Berhampur Univercity,Khallikote University , number of Tech, Management, Medical & Professional Institutes, Health care, Gopalpur Port, Industries like Tata SeZ, Saraff, IRE, Birla etc & tourism to TaraTarini, Gopalpur, Chilka and Destinations of South Odisha lakhs of floating population depend on Berhampur which is the gateway to South Odisha.
Around 25,000 persons of the ‘Army Air Defence College’, ‘Indian Naval Academy, Chilka’ and ‘Indian Coast Guard Station (ICGS) Gopalpur’ also depend on Berhampur for communication, transportation & their other needs.
For all these reasons Berhampur city is well deserved for a domestic airport but it is quite unclear why Ministry of Civil aviation and Odisha Government have never taken interest to establish an Airport in this city.
Odisha Development Forum’ once again requests the Ministry of Civil aviation and Odisha Government to consider the decades old demand of Ganjam People for the establishment of an Airport in Berhampur at the earliest.
Input;
Ram Prasad Tripathy ,
President, Odisha Development Forum
