He said the state government will provide necessary support for not only developing infrastructure for aviation but also consider incentives in the shape of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for the airline operations. Odisha has made tremendous stride in the last few years in terms of a steady growth of aviation traffic. Bhubaneswar and now Jharsuguda has been added to the aviation map of the country. While domestic flight connectivity has seen a noticeable improvement, there is still scope to increase international connectivity, he added.

“Presently, only one direct flight is operational for the international route. Apart from this, some international destinations are covered either through Delhi/Kolkata hub. This is quite inadequate in catering to an aspirational class,” he said. “We are expecting early Regional Connectivity under UDAN (Ude Desh Ki Aam Nagrik) to two airstrips, Jeypore and Rourkela, which is one of the places hosting the World Cup Hockey matches in 2023,” said the Chief Minister.