Dear Sir/Madam,

25 years back the demand for the establishment of a Domestic & Cargo Airport in Berhampur city, (Ganjam District) in the backward region of South Odisha has started. The intention was to expedite development by faster communication.

The 'Odisha Development Forum' submitted memorandum to #PMO, #CMO Odisha, #UnionCivilAviation Ministry and other concerned authorities several times on this issue and even got assurances on the early establishment of Berhampur Airport in Ganjam.

Odisha CM Shri Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for a domestic Airport in Berhampur in 2016.

Five years have passed but neither the State government established the Airport from its fund nor included it in UDDAN scheme of central government.

Noteworthy, the Expansion of 2nd worldwar 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 announced by it.

Odisha CM laid the foundation in 2008 & assured for early completion of domestic Airport in Berhampur and again laid a foundation in 2016.

Union Civil aviation Minister in Modi government 1.0 Ashok Gajapathi Raju promised for the establishment of a #Domestic & #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 Berhampur Airport.

Now Civil Aviation Dept. & Odisha govt jointly establishing Airports in #Rourkela (just 90-100 km from #Jharsuguda airport), in Puri just 50 km from Bhubaneswar airport & 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 we want Airport in Brahmapur??

@ Apart from BBSR if any city has potentiality to run an Airport; that 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 BBSR airport & 255 km from Vizag Airport.

@ An Airstrip build in 1930s is already existing in Berhampur University campus & new patch of land for a green field airport was already earmarked in masterplan/ CDP- Berhampur in 2016.

@ From decades the Civil Aviation Department has a Radar Central, office and huge Establisment functioning in Berhampur.

@ #Berhampur is a commercial city with around 7 lakh population & the population of Ganjam District alone is around 40 lakhs.

@ People of 12 districts also depend on Berhampur for various purposes & mainly for business purposes daily.

@ For BUSINESS, Education like IISER, Berhampur & Khallikote Universities, number of Tech, Management, Medical & Professional Institutes, Health care, Gopalpur Port, Industries like Tata SeZ, Saraff, IRE, Birla etc & tourism to Maa TaraTarini, Gopalpur, Chilka & destinations of South Odisha lakhs of floating population traveling to Berhampur which is also 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 depends 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.

From the reply of Ministry of Civil aviation it is also clear that govt of Odisha never approached central government for establishing an Greenfield Airport in Berhampur, Ganjam though the existing Rangailunda Airstrip is insufficient and have many technical issues.

'Odisha Development Forum' once again requests the Ministry of Civil aviation and Odisha Chief Minister to consider the decades old demand of Ganjam People for the establishment of a Greenfield Domestic & Cargo Airport in Berhampur at the new location earmarked in Berhampur City Master Plan at the earliest.

Regards,

Ram Prasad Tripathy 

President, Odisha  Development Forum

odf2000@gmail.com

rptripathy2000@gmail.com

Twitter: @FORUMODISHA

FACEBOOK: @ForumOdisha