Bhubaneswar, Jan, 03: Flight services are set to begin from Malkangiri district, located in the southern part of Odisha. From the coming month of January, there is a strong possibility that non-scheduled flight operations will start from this airport. The airport has been included under the RCS UDAN scheme.
Since the airport has a 1,500-metre runway, 20-seater aircraft will initially operate from here. Later, there are plans to allow operations of larger aircraft. This airport will be developed as a Category-2 airport.
According to available information, a few days ago senior officials from the State Transport Department and the Airports Authority of India visited Malkangiri and reviewed the ground situation. This team is scheduled to visit the project site again later this month. Runway expansion work, along with construction of the terminal building, fire station, and other infrastructure, has already been completed.
Earlier, in May this year, during his visit to Malkangiri, 5T Chairman Kartik Pandian inspected the expansion work of the airport located at Kotelguda and instructed that the work be completed by January. As the first phase involves only non-scheduled flight operations, a DGCA license will not be required at this stage.
At present, the Transport Department has held discussions with various airlines to start small aircraft services between Bhubaneswar and Malkangiri.