New Delhi/IBNS: Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated a daily flight between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela under the RCS UDAN scheme on Saturday.

The flight will operate seven days a week from January 7, 2023.

The operation of this new route will enhance regional connectivity and promote trade, commerce, and tourism between these cities, the civil aviation ministry said.

The flight from Bhubaneswar will depart at 14:55 hrs and reach Rourkela at 15:50 hrs, daily. Similarly, the flight from Rourkela will take off at 16:15 hrs and arrive at Bhubaneswar at 17:10 hrs, every day.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia congratulated the residents of both cities.

While there were only 74 airports in the country till 2014, today this number including heliports and water aerodromes has increased to 148 which is a 100 percent increase in eight years, Scindia said.

The minister further said that before the pandemic there was a record established that four lakh twenty thousand passengers travelled in a single day.

Now that record has been broken and four lakh fifty thousand passengers travelled in a day, he added.

In December 2022, more than four lakh passengers travelled each day of the month, he said.

In the context of the upcoming Hockey World Cup which will be organised in these cities of Odisha, Scindia said that earlier the travel time between Kalinga Stadium Bhubaneswar to Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium Rourkela took nine hours which will now be reduced to 1 hour 10 minutes through flight.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Gen. Dr Vijay Kumar Singh (Rtd.) also congratulated the residents of the cities.

This new connectivity will play a vital role in the development of the region, he said.