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New radar inaugurated at Jharsuguda airport; Airport expected to be functional in two years (in 2013)

Jharsuguda, Jharsugurha, Sambalpur-Burla-Jharsuguda chitta October 18th. 2011, 10:59pm

8 Responses to “New radar inaugurated at Jharsuguda airport; Airport expected to be functional in two years (in 2013)”

• 1

  stingidea Says:
  October 19th, 2011 at 6:36 am
  

  Let’s just hope it’s 2 years and not 20 years! There is an urgent need to put pressure on the government to upgrade infrastructure in the state. Citizen groups, media and NROs can provide the much needed public pressure through campaigns of different sorts. To quote from an article in Businessweek on the Indian IT industry shifting to lower cost locations – “The challenges of expanding to small cities include poor infrastructure, unreliable power supply, poor English proficiency and a lower-quality labor pool, according to Everest Group. “Infrastructure will be a very major challenge,” Mahalingam said. “If I have a choice of only two airlines to go to Bhubaneswar from Delhi, I think that’s going to put a phenomenal amount of pressure.”

• 2

  Arjun Bajaj Says:
  October 19th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
  

  strong initiative from Govt. is essential to start Jharsuguda airport.In western Orissa people are deprived of getting airport till date which is a necessity for fast movement.Why this Govt. is restricting fast movement of people for business, medical treatment,education and toursim.Surplus land are available near airport but orissa govt. is not taking any initiative by just saying airport authorities to scale down their requirement of land for airport.I urge Politicians and beaurocrats not to make it a political issue rather think of people living in Western Orissa and their needs for air infrastruture or do u want us to stay behind like this always and depend on Bhubaneswar and Raipur to take a flight .

• 3

  S Pani Says:
  October 19th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
  

  Well, good initiative. A few other basic requirements, like repaving of the existing runway, which is already pretty decent in length and some basic terminal facilities, should be made ready in quick time.

  But more than airport facilities what we need is of a small regional airline, who will cater to Odisha and its immediate neighborhood, especially the industrial zone. Because at this point, none of the major airlines would want to operate flights to Jharsuguda. What is needed is connectivity to Bhubaneswar, Raipur and Calcutta, from where people can connect out to other cities. Even that will remain pretty costly, but there will be a small pool willing to pay. Direct flights to Delhi, Mumbai etc will remain a dream for the time being.

  Spending too much and expanding too fast would be a mistake though. The idea of “build it and they will come” just is not affordable. Because if they dont come then the investment goes down the drain. In fact at this point there is no point in rushing into the project, since I doubt there are flights lined up to land at Jharsuguda airport the moment it is ready.

  The airport needs to be small in size and basic in nature to keep costs down. Govt of Odisha may try to strike a deal with AAI to keep airport charges to a minimum so as to attract airlines. Also GoO needs to provide proper road connectivity to the airport, if not already existing.

• 4

  stingidea Says:
  October 20th, 2011 at 10:35 am
  

  @S Pani: While the concept of a regional airline sounds nice it is somewhat of a non-starter in India. Paramount Airways in the south did well largely because of demand and the ability of people there to pay for the service. However, I am not sure it might be the case in the case of a state such as Odisha.
  What might work though is if the existing low cost airlines plying the Bhubaneswar and Kolkata route include a stopover in Jharsuguda. So you could have a route like Delhi – Jharsuguda – BBSR or Kolkata – Jharsuguda – Raipur or even a Mumbai – Jharsuguda – Kolkata. I am no expert in airport routes but just thinking aloud looking at a map as the crow flies…
  I completely agree with you on not spending too much given the lack of a clear demand as of now.

• 5

  ranjan Says:
  October 20th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
  

  Well..its good to have an intl airport at BBSR and a domestic one at Jharsuguda however the recent census 2011 did no good to us to justify the purpose.Correct me if i am wrong .If i am from the govt side why should i built up an airport where we dont have a population of even a lakh(Jharsuguda didnt made to the 1 l lakh town of India even this time http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-18/bhubaneswar/30296483_1_population-urbanization-demographers)Well if you got the population then the per capita income will be there as well.There are so many cities in india which deserve an intl airport.This year 6 cities in Kerela was added to million plus cities along with Kochi.BBSR was a sheer disapointment to me.I was expecting its the only million plus city but its now got 8 lakh population.Talking about the BBSR-CTC corridor(15 Lakhs approx) does that gives us enough reason to start Metro service as suggested by state govt in the past.But the metro rail autorities gave just one reason not enough population .In that case Surat,Ahmedabad,Kanpur-Lucknow corridor got enough reasons.The problem with our state govt is that they lack people who dont take things sensibly and practically.Ok is it fair to compare Vizag with BBSR.I dont think so as VIzag is way ahead of BBSR.Whom we are got to blame for that ?Our state govt or the center?
  Well if we should keep blaming te center then none of the states like Gujrat,kerela could have been what they are today.Still even today Orissa is considered as a backward state.The KBK region is more popular then BBSR in Delhi.Reason poverty.Why the govt is not concentrating more on KBK rather then making desperate moves to have intl airport at BBSR.I dont say we dont need it but yes as of now we dont need.Our priority is to fight poverty.If the center is not willing to help why cant the state govt help?In Punjab we dont have a single village.We are a mineral rich state but the problem is we never knew how to earn profits.And even if the profit is earned the major part will be spent at BBSR region.Why we need to spend more on BBSR and why we should spent less on KBK region.BBSR has got the momentum and its just a matter of time to make the intl airport happening.But the KBK dist never saw the light.Why we need to give permisions to Vedanta in the name of employment.Why cant we have govt initiatives like Rail coach factory etc etc.The announcement was made but never implemented.Why cant the state govt follow on these kind of matters?The ESIC issue was the most shocking one when it was decided to be established at BBSR when 75% insured people are at Sundergarh.How can a poor travel all the way to BBSR? Finally one question is the state govt biased towards BBSR ?

• 6

  S Pani Says:
  October 20th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
  

  @stringidea

  You are getting the wrong idea of what I mean by regional airline. Here I mean an airline which operates only within a very small region, like a state and its immediate neighborhood.

  Paramount was connecting south India to the rest of the country, not exactly a regional airline.

  What I am hoping for is an airline, operating a couple of 20 seater aircrafts, something like the Beechcraft 1900s, with its hub in Bhubaneswar Airport itself. It will have services to Jharsuguda, Jeypore, Berhampur, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Raipur and Vizag. It may also connect any of the afore mentioned cities to Kolkata, if the demand is high enough. Or people can connect to Kolkata/Delhi out of Bhubaneswar or Vizag etc.

  The point why I am hoping for this is that, I doubt it will make economic sense for the nationwide airlines to operate even something like a DEL-JSG-BBI flight. Because remember, the costs for making even a stopover are not exactly very low, in terms of fuel, airport charges and also time. This when there is no guarantee of actual demand for such routes. Thus you cant, at this point of time hope that an airline will think it economically pertinent to land a 100+seater aircraft in a place like Jharsuguda.

  The airline in the entire world works on the hub system. Thus smaller airports dont get connected directly, but through a hub. The Bhubaneswar Airport will have to be the hub at this point of time for entire Odisha. When if future demand rises, we will start to see the bigger airline providing stopovers in locations like Jharsuguda.

• 7

  Abhisek Says:
  October 21st, 2011 at 3:01 am
  

  If the MSSR radar is what is needed for an airport then Berhampur has this radar operating since last 10 years. The best way to develop airports at the regional centres like Berhampur, Rourkela and Jharsuguda should be through PPP and partnerships with say the RSP for Rourkela, Vedanta for Jharsuguda and TATA for Berhampur, companies those who have interest in these places, will ensure airports with lesser cost to state exchequer. Once the air port infrastructure is ready,air connectivity will be a matter of time. But, today where are the airports and runways to think about air connectivity. The small 6 seater that flies between Berhampur-Bhubaneswar and Berhampur-Vizag charges Rs4500 for a person. So,unless these airstrips are expanded to accomodate 45 seaters the tariff will remain out of reach for the majority.

• 8

  S Pani Says:
  October 21st, 2011 at 9:24 am
  

  @Abhishek

  Let’s be a bit realistic. There is no way any private party will be interested in entering into a PPP agreement for development of an airport like Jharsuguda, Berhampur, Rourkela etc. These airports are financial sinkholes. Many of the larger airports in this country barely make profit. If you check, you will find that less than 20 airports in the country make profit, out of which 6 are in the PPP mode. The AAI makes a profit largely due to the high profits that Mumbai and Delhi make, while the rest of the airports make loss.

  As of now the facilities at such small airports will have to be maintained and operated by AAI only. As for 40+ seater aircraft, I doubt these will be viable for airports like this. There is no point in running such large aircraft when the demand is highly unlikely to fill the plane. Dont expect fares from any such small airports to facilitate their use by a large section of the public. It will be for the rich and for those people whose time is a lot more precious.

  It will take a few years before we see the major airlines to starting adding these locations to their networks. For now it will be small regional airlines operation 5-30 seat aircraft that will service these towns.