The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has agreed to develop the ₹5,631-crore Puri airport after receiving crucial environmental and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances. According to reports from Business Standard, the proposed greenfield airport, dubbed as Shree Jagannath International Airport (SJIA), will be developed on an area of around 1,164.72 acres, including 68.82 acres of revenue forest land. The project received final environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on September 30, removing a major regulatory hurdle that had been pending for five years. In April, the project had also secured in-principle Stage-I clearance from the Centre for diversion of forest land, marking significant progress in the regulatory approval process.
The airport project is being pursued by the Odisha government under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, with AAI agreeing to take up the development with its investment. As reported by Business Standard, N B S Rajput, principal secretary of the Commerce and Transport department, confirmed that AAI will prepare the detailed project report (DPR) after other statutory formalities are completed. The DPR will determine the fresh investment requirement based on the airport's phased development, technical specifications, traffic projections, land and infrastructure requirements and prevailing construction costs. The project has been appraised as a Category-A airport project requiring subsequent approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) before execution. The airport was earlier envisaged as being operated by private entities, with Fairfax, Adani Airports and GMR having shown interest during the 2024 tender process for the first phase development.
The first phase of the airport has been designed for a traffic capacity of 4.6 million passengers per annum, with infrastructure capable of handling aircraft ranging from ATR-72 and Q-400 turboprops to A320, A321, A350 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. According to Business Standard, the proposed airport footprint covers 874.41 acres of government land, 221.48 acres of private land and 68.82 acres of revenue forest land. The project does not entail displacement of habitations, though 60 project-affected families whose agricultural land falls within the airport site will be affected by land acquisition. The MoCA has already granted site clearance, followed by in-principle approval in 2025, demonstrating the comprehensive regulatory approval process.
The airport will feature a 3,700-m long and 45-m wide Code-E runway equipped with Category-I instrument landing system, approach lighting and other visual aids. As reported by Business Standard, the infrastructure plan includes a 54,000 square metre integrated terminal building with peak handling capacity of 1,337 passengers, an ATC-cum-technical building of 3,063 sq m, and a 7,000 sq m cargo terminal. The project will also include parking facilities for 800 cars, 100 two-wheelers and eight buses, along with airline-support infrastructure comprising maintenance, repair and operations facilities and fuel farm. The airport will be developed at Sipasarubali in Brahmagiri tehsil of Puri district, close to the Bay of Bengal and connected to the Puri-Satapada-Bhubaneswar corridor through national highway 316.
The proposed airport will be located at Sipasarubali in Brahmagiri tehsil of Puri district, close to the Bay of Bengal and connected to the Puri-Satapada-Bhubaneswar corridor through national highway 316. According to Business Standard, the site is around 50 km from Bhubaneswar's Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) by air and around 67 km by road. The international airport at Puri was necessitated since it is being developed into a world-class heritage city and BPIA has reached its design capacity limit, with former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik initiating the proposal by writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 1, 2021.
