By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 4, 2018: Odisha finally succeeded to have the second operational airport in Odisha after the Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar following granting of license by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday.

“2nd airport of Odisha gets license today. Happy to inform the licensing of Jharsuguda airport today by DGCA. It will pave way for scheduled operations,” joint secretary of union civil aviation ministry, Usha Padhee tweeted in her post.

Jharsuguda is one of the five airports in Odisha chosen to provide regional flight connectivity under Centre’s flagship ‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik’ (UDAN) scheme, which also includes Biju Patnaik International Airport.

The other airports Utkela (Kalahandi), Jeypore (Koraput) and Rourkela (Sundergarh) are also likely to be given clearances by the civil aviation ministry soon which will place Odisha on fast track in civil aviation network, Padhee wrote in her post.

The state government had inked a memorandum of understanding with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on July 30, 2014 to develop the Jharsuguda airport with a budget allocation of around Rs 210 crore.

The project being jointly developed by AAI and the state government was earlier scheduled for completion by December 2017 but was later deferred till May 2018.