Govt submits fresh reports on Puri airport, seeks nod

THE proposed international airport at Puri has moved one step further with the state government submitting additional details sought by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) along with the bird and wetland study reports and seeking statutory clearances at the earliest.

- HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @ Bhubaneswar

The site at Sipasarubali is accessible from NH 316 connecting Bhubaneswar and Puri. The proposed Shree Jagannath International Airport (SJIA) has been planned to be developed in phased manner. The projected passenger traffic for the first phase is estimated to be 3.71 million per annum (MPPA), which will increase up to 14.6 MPPA by FY 2043-45. Initially, it has been estimated that around 100 flights will operate per day.

The Commerce and Transport department, which is the project proponent of the airport, claimed that the forest type of area, for which conversion has been applied, is tropical dry deciduous moderate forest covered mostly with casuarina, cashew and acacia species which were initially planted during 1970-80.