Puri airport construction likely to begin soon; land acquisition in next 6 months: Govt official

The international airport is to be built on 1,164 acres of land. As per initial estimates, the airport will be built at a cost of around Rs 5,631 crore.

Out of this, 68 acres of forest and 221.48 acres are private in Sipasarubali and Sandhapur under Brahmagiri tehsil.

A government officer associated with land acquisition told ANI that over 961 acres of land have been acquired, while work is underway for 221.48 of private land.

"We will complete the land acquisition in the next 6 months," he said.

The private land required for the project includes 153.37 acres in Sipasarubali and 68.11 acres in Sandhapur.

Plans for rehabilitation and resettlement of locals are also underway.

"The project proposal was submitted after the identification of land and favourable obstacle limitation surfaces (OLS) survey. A public hearing for the acquisition of private land has been completed," said an official associated with the project.

When asked about the construction of the airport, the official said: "We are awaiting a few more clearance. It would start soon."

Last year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) granted site clearance approval for the project.

The clearance was obtained exactly a year after the government submitted all requisites to the ministry seeking clearance to set up the airport in accordance with the Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008

Puri International Airport is a proposed international airport in Odisha, which will primarily serve the Puri region. The closest airport to Puri located around 64.6 kilometres from the heritage city of Jagannath Puri, is currently the Biju Patnaik Airport (IATA Code: BBI) in Bhubaneswar.

In 2021, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to establish an international airport at Puri which will help promote Jagannath culture.

Since then, Patnaik has raised the issue of the airport with PM Modi several times. (ANI)