Berhampur, June 26: Odisha Government concluded to a decision of expanding the airstrip at Rangeil in order to facilitate landing of 40 to 70 seated turboprop aircraft. The existing airstrip with a 900-m runway is on 40 acre of land. Another 40 acre of land and a 30 acre of private land is required to upgrade it to 1,874-m runway. A high-level official team led by special secretary, A K Meena made a visit to the airstrip on Friday. The state government will be providing funds for land acquisition to the district administration and also a pipe will be built on the nearby canal thus diverting Berhampur-Gopalpur road a bit. Along with, private operators will be encouraged to run small planes from Rangeil to Bhubaneswar, Jeypore and other towns. At the same time the government will move the Centre to upgrade the airstrip to a mini-airport once the land acquisition is over.
Union civil Aviation minister, Ashok Gajapati Raju during his recent visit to Berhampur had said that his ministry would take steps for the development of Rangeil airstrip to an airport, if the state government would forward a proposal.
Executive engineer of works department, Berhampur, P.K. Das said that their department has already prepared a detail project report (DPR) at Rs.44 crore inclusive of Rs.14 crore for land acquisition.
