Jamshedpur to be reconnected by air under central govt’s Udaan scheme

The steel city of Jamshedpur is all set to have an air connectivity under Union government’s Udaan scheme soon, a senior official of East Singhbhum district on Friday said.

Air services between Jamshedpur-Kolkata and Jamshedpur-Bhubaneswar are likely to be launched from October 30 with a nine-seater aircraft from Sonari Aerodrome, said Additional District Magistrate (Law and Order), Nandkishore Lal.

The Deputy Development Commissioner, Saurabh Sinha and Lal along with aerodrome officials, fire department officials, Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee representative and Traffic DySP Kamal Kishore held a meeting over the issue and discussed security and fire safety arrangements. “We have trained 49 security personnel to be deputed at the aerodrome and 12 of them have already providing their services,” the officer added.

Earlier airlines including MDLR, Vayudoot and Deccan Airways had launched flights to nearby cities such as Kolkata and Ranchi from Sonari aerodrome, with small aircraft, but had ultimately stopped services.

The demand to re-establish air connectivity has been a lo ng pending demand from businesses in the area as well as the state government.

Meanwhile, BJP claimed the proposed launch of air services from Jamshedpur was the outcome of a meeting between Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and its leader Kunal Sarangi, BJP spokesperson, over the issue recently.

On the sidelines of inauguration of Deoghar airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 12 last, Sarangi in press statement said he had submitted a memorandum to Scindia urging him to start air service with charter plane under government’s Udaan scheme from the steel city till a big airport would come up.

Jamshedpur is Jharkhand’s industrial capital and it was necessary to have air facility in the era of globalization, Sarangi said.

Referring to a proposed new airport at Dhalbhumgarh, about 55 kms from here, under Ghatsila Sub-division, Sarangi said a Memorandum of Understanding between Airport Authority of India and the Jharkhand Government was signed to construct an airport in 2019 but no progress has been made as yet.

The foundation stone of Dhalbhumgarh airport had been laid in January 2019.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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