Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has given its green signal for the airport in Sipasarubali Mouza under Brahmagiri tehsil. Finally, a step further was taken for the state government’s move to set up an airport in Puri.
According to the reports, a three-member AAI team comprising Shantanu Phalnikar, Vinod Kumar Pillai and Sushil Kumar Verma had visited Puri on June 23 this year to identify the location for the proposed Sri Jagannath International Airport. The team visited four sites at Girala and Sipasarubali on the western side of Puri town and Samagara and Baliguali on the eastern end. Before its return to Delhi, the team finalised the site at Sipasarubali as the ideal location as it fulfilled all criteria for the international airport.
On the basis of the team’s report, the AAI in its pre-feasibility report to the Odisha government stated that the land in Sipasarubali will be ideal for the international airport. However, keeping its future prospect, the airport will require an additional 2300 acres of land. From the environmental point of view, the report said the proposed airport will have no problem with the wind speed and direction.
The report further informed that the airport at present will have one runway over 1200 acres of land but, it will require a parallel runway in future.
