'Allow international flights at Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur'

New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Umesh Patel on Monday attended the Conference of Civil Aviation Ministers of States and Union Territories as the representative of Chhattisgarh and reiterated the demands for international flights and a cargo hub in Raipur. Addressing the meeting, presided over by Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia at Vigyan Bhawan here, the minister said that the infrastructure of Raipur Airport, the length of the runway, the capacity of the terminal building, navigation and air traffic control facilities are fully suitable for international airline operations.

He asserted that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had already requested the Centre through various letters to allow international flights and develop a cargo hub in Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur. He had also submitted a proposal for the hub at the 23rd meeting of the central zonal committee. He said that there is an urgent need to develop the facility of cargo hub in Chhattisgarh. Along with this, the state also has better prospects as there is no cargo hub nearby.

Patel stressed on the need for developing night landing facility at Bilaspur airport and added that the Bilaspur airport has been upgraded to 3-C VFR category by the state government. And approval for works worth 22 crores has also been issued for the development of night landing facility.

Along with this, he said that due to low visibility in bad weather passengers have to face inconvenience as flights are canceled or diverted. Therefore, PBN (Performance Based Navigation Approach) navigation system should be established soon for smooth operation of flights at Bilaspur, Jagdalpur and Ambikapur airports.

The union minister assured of positive action on all the demands.

Chhattisgarh Secretary Siddharth Komal Pardeshi was also present at the meeting.