The Director General of Civil Aviation on Thursday provided license to the Jeypore Airport in Odisha's Koraput district to carry out commercial flight operations.
As per the official release, this license authorises the aerodrome to be used as regular place of landing and departure to all persons on equal terms and conditions for operation by aircraft requiring specifications of runway and associated facilities including granted exemptions equal to or less than those indicated in the Aerodrome Manual, subject to the conditions as contained in Schedule-I and for a period as shown in Schedule-II.
However, the Central agency also made it clear that the license will be liable to suspension/ modification/ withdrawal if the provisions of the Aircraft Act 1934, Aircraft Rules 1937 are violated.
Earlier, the width of the runway was 900 meter which was later extended to 1200 meter. But, after the orders, the runway was again extended to 1500 meter.
After Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda, the Jeypore airstrip has become the third one to get the civil aviation airport tag in the State.
The airstrip built in the 1960s was used during the visit of ministers or VIPs to the town. In the 1980s, Vayudoot operated flights from the airstrip. But the service was stopped after crash of a flight.
Besides, there were plans to launch flights from Jeypore airstrip on UDAN routes from September 2017. But the plan got delayed due to infrastructural problems.