Udan scheme: Jamshedpur to soon be re-connected by air

Air services between Jamshedpur-Kolkata and Jamshedpur-Bhubaneswar are likely to be launched from October 30 with a nine-seater aircraft from Sonari aerodrome.

Jamshedpur: The steel city of Jamshedpur is all set to have air connectivity under the Union government's Udan scheme soon, said a senior official of Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district. Air services between Jamshedpur-Kolkata and Jamshedpur-Bhubaneswar are likely to be launched from October 30 with a nine-seater aircraft from Sonari aerodrome, Additional District Magistrate (Law and Order), Nandkishore Lal said on Friday.

Deputy Development Commissioner Saurabh Sinha and Lal along with aerodrome officials, fire department officers, Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee representatives and Traffic Deputy SP 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 started 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 later they stopped services. Reestablishing air connectivity with Jamshedpur has been a long-pending demand from businesses in the area as well as the state government.

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

On the sidelines of the inauguration of Deoghar airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 12, Sarangi had said he submitted a memorandum to Scindia, urging him to start air service with charter planes under the government's Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme from the steel city till a big airport would come up.

Jamshedpur is Jharkhand's industrial capital and it is necessary to have air facilities in the era of globalisation, 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 the 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 was laid in January 2019. (PTI)