Ahead of the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup-2023, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra has urged the Government of India to enhance flight connectivity to the VSS Airport, Jharsuguda, and operationalisation of the Rourkela Airport.

Mahapatra has written a letter to Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Rajiv Bansal, in this regard.

The FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup-2023 is scheduled to be held at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela from January 13 to 29, 2023. 

Mahapatra thanked Bansal for the steps being taken at the Central Government level to make the Rourkela Airport operational at the earliest.

As an alternative to the Rourkela Airport, the VSS Airport is the nearest domestic airport having connectivity with cities like Kolkata, Raipur, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bhubaneswar.

Further, Jharsuguda is well-connected with Rourkela via road as well as railway. Thus, access to Rourkela city would be made easier if the air connectivity to Jharsuguda is enhanced, he said.

“Now it is a matter of concern too that Spice Jet is cancelling scheduled flights from different Metro Cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata, which badly affects the connectivity to the State and to the utmost dissatisfaction of the general public at large,” Mahapatra wrote.

Therefore, he urged the Union Civil Aviation Secretary to look into the matter in order to increase the flight frequency/connectivity from important cities to Jharsuguda especially during the month of January, 2023 in view of the Hockey Men’s World Cup so as to cater to the passengers’ demand.