Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is on a three day visit to national capital Delhi, is scheduled to meet a number of Union Ministers and take up the various pending issues related to the state with them. He is likely to review the various issues and discuss about them with the Union Ministers. Yesterday, Naveen had met Prime Minister Naveen Patnaik and presented a number of demands related to the state. Particularly, he discussed about the speeding up the works related to the proposed International Airport in Puri. The site clearance for the Airport is pending with the Union Civil Aviation Ministry since September 2022. The boundary for the Airport has already been earmarked. As the Bhubaneswar airport is witnessing much traffic, the Airport at Puri will help ease it.
Naveen also discussed with the PM various key issues of Odisha requested him to expedite the process. To improve connectivity in rural areas, Naveen requested PM Modi to extend the provision of five free connections in each gram panchayat for Bharat Net Phase II. The DPR prepared by the Odisha Government for extending Bharat Net from the gram panchayats to the villages is pending with the Department of Telecommunication and no decision on the matter has been taken so far.