Odisha Govt Seeks Execution of MoU between SAIL & AAI to Make Rourkela Airport Ready for Hockey World Cup

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has sought execution of the MoU between the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Airports Authority India (AAI) to make the Rourkela Airport ready for the upcoming Hockey World Cup.

Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra wrote to Sanjay Kumar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India, requesting him for his personal intervention in this regard.

The upcoming FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup-2023 is to be co-hosted by both Bhubaneswar and Rourkela City. It is scheduled to be held during January, 2023 and State Government is leaving no stone unturned to make this mega event successful.

“The Rourkela Airport of SAIL is being developed by AAI for civil operations under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) UDAN. It was already licensed for 28 category Airport but due to operational issue, it was decided to upgrade into 2C category for which various works are being taken up by AAI and is scheduled to be completed by end of October, 2022”, the Chief Secretary mentioned in his letter.

In this respect, a MoU was signed on 23rd April, 2018 between SAIL & AAI for operation and management of flight connectivity under the UDAN Scheme which is not in force, the Chief Secretary stated.

AAI has already submitted a draft MoU to SAIL. It is matter of fact that, the Rourkela Airport is the key infrastructure which will play a major role in transportation during the upcoming Hockey World Cup and the support from SAIL is highly anticipated to make it operational.

“Therefore, I would like to request you to seek your personal intervention to look into the above matter and to request SAIL to execute the MoU with AAI in order to make the Rourkela Airport ready for the upcoming Hockey World Cup”, the Chief Secretary said.