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Following is from the Team Orissa newsletter of AprilJune’2011.

In regards to the airport in Paradeep, there has been news that it will be an important aspect of the proposed PCPIR in Paradeep.

In the past, two other airport locations have been mentioned: Koraput/Jeypore/Sunabeda area and Balasore/Baripada/Rasgovindpur area. In fact, after Rourkela, Jharsuguda and Gopalpur, these two will be the important locations as they have the potential to be regional airports.

(Thanks to Situn and Rourkelacity.com for the pointer.)

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Air taxi services between Rourkela and Calcutta will be launched from September 1. As a promotional fare, a one way trip per person (inclusive of all charges) would cost Rs 4,189 for Rourkela-Calcutta sector from September 1 till 11. Thereafter, the full fare of Rs 6,494 (inclusive of all charges) will be levied on the sector. The bookings on the Calcutta-Rourkela-Calcutta route is already on and available on the website www.dtdsindia.com.

We explored the DTDS webiste at http://www.dtdsindia.com/.  Following are some excerpts.

Between Kolkata airport and all the neighboring Steel City Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Burnpur, Durgapur (Panagarh), Rourkela airport at a fixed and convenient schedule.  …

As soon as you arrive at airport, our staff will greet you with your boarding ticket and escort you till the aircraft where you board and take off.

Following are the flight timings.

Now the people of Rourkela need to patronize this flight so that other careers get interested in scheduling regular flights to Rourkela.

In the last couple of days there have been several news items regarding improving the air connectivity and airport infrastructure in Odisha. These include:

• Steps towards improving the current airport in Bhubaneswar.
• Steps towards expediting the Jharsuguda airport.
• Steps towards having air services to two additional airports in the state.

Following are some of the news items and excerpts.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

A private airline today submitted a proposal to the state government to start a daily air service between Rourkela and Calcutta. The company initially proposes to operate an 18-seater aircraft.

The company, which has done a preliminary survey, intends to use the airstrip of Rourkela steel plant but it has urged the government to provide another 64 acres to develop the airstrip. In the second phase, it plans to start anther flight from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar via Jharsuguda. The proposal is under consideration, said sources. Representatives of the airline met the chief secretary Bijay Patnaik and submitted their proposal today.

As per their 2010 placement brochure, NIT Rourkela has 675 acres and following some high court order would be expanding by adding another 400 acres. The following Samaja article talks about that expansion.

It is great that this discussion came up at the Chief Secretary level. With stability at that position for next several years pursuing a comprehensive development agenda for Rourkela with him could work well. Some of the issues that should be pursued with him include:

• Medical Colleges (ESIC, SAIL)
• University (a comprehensive metropolitan university with all branches)
• A national level sports or physical education institute or university (upgrade existing sports academies)
• Airport
• Raiway issues (world class station, Division HQ, Talcher-Bimlagarh line; more trains)
• Declaring greater Rourkela as a municipal corporation
• Public transport inside Rourkela
• Enticing IT/BPO industries to take advantage of the cosmopolitan demography to set shop there; Development of IT parks.
• Encouraging various companies in RKL to further contribute with respect to HRD (SAIL medical and Engineering College, etc.)

Please suggest more.

We discussed this earlier in greater length at http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3480. See also http://www.orissa2020.org/home/area-wise-plan.

With more and more BPUT operations moving to Rourkela (thanks to http://rourkelacity.com for the pointer) there could be some huge positives, but not one that people normally think as BPUT’s academic programs in Rourkela will not be better than the programs at NIT Rourkela. But there would be definitely more seats; so that would be good. But the biggest positives would be with respect to connectivity.

In particular, the connectivity between Rourkela and the rest of Odisha, especially the Bhubaneswar area, would improve. Currently not enough attention is being paid to that.

For example, the Talcher-Bimlagarh line will significantly shorten the distance between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. The distance between them will become 308 kms: BBS-Talcher (114) + Talcher-Bimlagarh(154) + Bimlagarh-Rourkela(40). Currently the shortest distance is 419 kms. Once Talcher-Bimlagarh line is completed one could travel between BBS and ROU in about 5 hours. That would mean one could take a train from one place at 6 and reach the other at 11. Currently the BBS-ROU intercity takes 7hrs 30 minutes one way and 7hs 55 minutes the other way. On the other hand the BBS-SBP takes between 4:40 to 4:50 minutes in the two intercities (BBS-BLGR and SBP-Puri).

So lets hope that the inconvenience caused by having many BPUT operations from Rourkela will lead to people demanding speeding up of the completion of the Talcher-Bimlagarh line and perhaps even the start of shuttle flights between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.

Another positive would be that more private colleges (not now but in few years when the demand picks up again) may come up close to Rourkela and the frequent travel by college heads to Rourkela could give them ideas to develop the travel corridor in many ways.

So although the convenience argument is often used by many (including me) to support some BPUT operations in Bhubaneswar, where most of the BPUT colleges are, perhaps for the greater and longer term good some inconvenience in the short term can be accepted.

Bringing Rourkela and Bhubaneswar closer (in travel time as well as in people’s mind) would be a big plus for Odisha.

Lets work on operationalizing Talcher-Bimlagarh line in 3-5 years!

(Thanks to Future Berhampur for the link.)

This is an welcome news. My guess is that if proper efforts are made then the situation with respect to air connectivity in Odisha could be as follows:

• Bhubaneswar airport would have a few international flights, better connectivity to big cities across India and small planes flying to nearby smaller airports.
• Jharsuguda airport would have flights to several cities in India.
• Airports in Rourkela, Berhampur, Jeypore and Rasgovindpur would have small planes (20-40 seaters) flying mainly to nearby larger airports.
• The locations mentioned above matches with the Tier 1 and 2 areas mentioned in the orissa2020 site.
• In the next tier will be airports at Angul, Therubali, Utkela (Kalahandi) and others. (See the list of airstrips in Odisha here.) I think because of the industries Angul and Therubali will be the leading contenders.

The best way to get commercial flights to Rourkela is to make a case with the various private airlines. If any one of them agrees, the rest regarding what authorizations would be needed to enable the planes to fly to the SAIL airport in Rourkela would not be hard. Couple of years back the then DM of Sundergarh was very close to convincing Air Deccan to fly to Rourkela. One needs to get in touch with the current DM and revive that process.

Until the Jharsuguda airport becomes functional commercial flights to this airport is sorely needed. Even after that, enough traffic now may result in commercial flights continuing their presence in the airport. So in a sense this is the last chance (for 10-15 years) for Rourkela people to have commercial flight connectivity.

As of today, Orissa has only one airport with commercial flights. That airport is in Bhubaneswar. Following is copied from my site “Orissalinks: Airports and air connectivity in Orissa.”

Bhubaneswar:

• Indian (schedule: daily flights to/from Kolkata [direct], Mumbai [Mumbai-Raipur-BBSR-Mumbai], Delhi [direct], Delhi-Ranchi-BBSR-Delhi, Bangalore [via-Chennai], and Chennai [direct], plus twice a week direct flight to-from Bangalore)
• Air Sahara (network, schedule: direct daily flights to/from Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi) – the Kolkata flight is no longer there in the current schedule,
• Air Deccan (schedule: two daily direct flights between BBSR and Kolkata and daily flights between BBSR and Delhi, BBSR and Mumbai, BBSR and Visakhapatnam, BBSR and Hyderabad, BBSR and Chennai and BBSR and Bangalore (via Chennai). A flight between Ranchi and BBSR is also in the offing.)
• Kingfisher (schedule: daily flights to Hyderabad and Delhi [via Hyderabad])
• Wonder air chopper service (chopper flights from Bhubaneswar to Keonjhar and on to Barbil from Feb 9th 2007)
• Spicejet (coming soon)
• Indigo (coming soon)
• Cities connected directly (non-stop or reachable with one-stop but without changing planes)
  
  • Delhi [3+2] (Indian: daily, Indian/Alliance Air: daily, Delhi-Ranchi-BBSR-Delhi, Air Sahara: daily, Kingfisher: daily via Hyderabad, Air Deccan: daily)
  • Kolkata [3] (Indian: daily, Air Sahara: no more, Air Deccan: twice daily)
  • Hyderabad [3] (Air Sahara: daily, Kingfisher: daily, Air Deccan: daily)
  • Mumbai [1+1] (Indian: daily, Mumbai-Raipur-BBSR-Mumbai; Air Deccan: daily)
  • Chennai [2] (Indian: daily, Air Deccan: daily)
  • Bangalore [.3+2] (Indian: daily via Chennai, Indian: 2/week direct, Air Deccan: daily via Chennai)
  • Visakhapatnam [1] (Air Deccan: daily)
  • Ranchi [1,0] (Air Deccan : in cards, details awaited, Indian/Alliance Air: Delhi-Ranchi-BBSR-Delhi)
    
  • Raipur [1,0] (Mumbai-Raipur-BBSR-Mumbai)
  • Keonjhar, Orissa (wonder air, chopper service from Feb 9th 2007)
  • Barbil, Orissa (wonder air, chopper service from Feb 9th 2007)

• More connectivity (planned connections):
  • Jet Airways (network): indications
  • Air India: AirIndia flights from Bhubaneswar to Bangkok or Malaysia in Winter 2006?
  • GoAir (schedule): has plans for Bhubaneswar
  • Airlines with no existing plans for BBSR: Paramount.
• New Indian budget airlines expected to launch during 2007: AirOne Feeder Airline (based in Bangalore); Magic Air; Indus Air; Easy Air; and Star Air. (more information)
• Connectivity wishlist (Oct 26, 2006)
  • BBSR-Rourkela
  • More BBSR-Bangalore (on the way to Goa)
  • BBSR-Pune (on the way to Mumbai)
  • BBSR-Jaipur (on the way to Delhi)
  • BBSR-Goa (with stop over in Bangalore)
  • BBSR-Varanasi (on the way to Srinagar/Delhi/Chandigarh)
  • BBSR-Kochi (with stop over in Chennai)
  • BBSR-Guwahati (with stop over in Kolkata)
  • BBSR-Bangkok/Kuala Lumpur/Seoul (Delhi/Mumbai-BBSR-Bangkok/KL/Seoul)
  • BBSR-London (Kolkata-BBSR-London)
• Airport plans: [Oct22-05-priority-BBSR-Shillong-Dimapur-Nagpur]
• Editor’s comment, Sept 20’05: The private colleges in Orissa should get together with Infosys, Satyam etc. to establish free public wi-fi in Bhubaneswar airport and Bhubaneswar railway station. At this point, it might be a first for the country. It will distinguish Bhubaneswar, generate a lot of publicity, with software companies and airline companies taking notice of it.
• Cities connected (direct or with a stopover), timings

• Rourkela: There is an airport to which Indian Airlines used to fly. Service to it needs to be reintroduced as soon as possible.
• Plans to develop Jharsuguda airstrip to a full-fledged airport: [1]
• Sites for flight news with respect to India: Aviation India; Indian A&D
• A site for flight tickets: http://cleartrip.com