Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik wants new Jharsuguda airport named after Veer Surendra Sai

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wants the new Jharsuguda airport to be named after Odia freedom fighter Veer Surendra Sai. The airport is to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to arrive in a special flight, straight to Jharsuguda from New Delhi, on Sept 22.

In a letter written to Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, the Chief Minister confirming his presence for the inauguration, also asked for the airport to be used for commercial flights. Prime Minister Modi will also be laying the foundation stone for the revival of the Talcher fertiliser plant and inaugurate a critical new railway line of the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd.

Reiterating his earlier request for the airport to be named after Veer Surendra Sai, a tribal leader of Sambalpur who fought the British and died in prison, Patnaik said it’d be a “befitting tribute to the legendary son of the soil.” The Civil Aviation Ministry reportedly has not acted on Odisha request pointing out that such naming of airports was normally backed by a resolution of the Legislative Assembly, which in this case had not happened.


In his letter to Prabhu, Patnaik suggested at least on of Air India’s Bhubaneswar to Delhi flights be routed through Jharsuguda. “You might be aware that Jharsuguda is located strategically in an industrial and mining belt of Odisha. Keeping in view the growing importance of this city in western Odisha, I would request you to kindly consider introduction of commercial flights to Jharsuguda,” said Patnaik.