The State Government has prepared a roadmap for civil aviation for a period of ten years from 2012-13 to 2022-23. The initiative is set boost intra-state and inter-state civil aviation facilities.
This has come to light at a high level meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Pattnaik in State Secretariat recently. The roadmap prepared for the purpose aims at developing creation of night parking facility and hinterland connectivity to establishment of aero-city, MRO and refuelling Hub. Identified mile stones of work accomplishment are Domestic Terminal & Connectivity, setting up of Aviation Training Institutes, operation of International Flights, Cargo Hub and Air line base. This will also facilitate investment in aviation related activities to boost intra and inter-state trade & tourism.
The review details that Odisha has 17 airstrips and 16 helipads. The Government has identified nine locations in the State to be connected through civil aviation. There is proposal to develop greenfield airports in five locations at Rayagada, Paradip, Dhamara, Angul and Kalinganagar. Up-gradation of four existing airfields at Gopalpur, Jharsuguda, Barbil and Rourkela has also been proposed. At present, Odisha is connected with other parts of the country through domestic flights of Indian Airlines, Indigo and Jet Airways. While Jet Airways has connectivity to Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, Indigo has air connectivity to Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai Vishakhapatnam, Indian Airlines is connected to Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The meeting has decided to initiate steps to motivate airline operators to establish connectivity to other cities like Raipur, Patna, Bhopal and Ranchi.
The review added IPICOL has been asked to explore partnership opportunities with interested air lines for connectivity to South and Southeast Asia from international wing of Bhubaneswar Air Port. Meanwhile, Air India and Indigo have started seamless connectivity of international locations from Bhubaneswar-Dubai. Fly Dubai and Air Asia have also expressed interest to operate direct international flights from Bhubaneswar.
The Chief Secretary directed to initiate steps for establishing connectivity to at least to Jharsuguda, Koraput, Rourkela and Rayagada in the first phase. For intra-state aviation, Air Odisha and Global Aviation have come forward for starting the operation soon. The Government has identified 190 acres of land for expansion of the airports.
Further, private players have been encouraged to utilize air cargo routes and develop world class cargo hub in Odisha. Decision has been taken for making market assessment and feasibility for setting up a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Odisha in PPP mode. Pattnaik asked IPICOL to arrange an interface with Air Line Operators, Tour Operators, Hotel Associations and Travel & Restaurant associations and various stakeholders to assess the real requirement and chalk out the areas for Governmental support.  
Principal Secretary Finance Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, Secretary Industries Prayag Gupta, Principal Secretary Tourism Ashok Kumar Tripathy and senior officials participated in discussions while CMD, IPICOL C J Venugopal presented the roadmap.