New Delhi: The Veer Surendra Sai Airport in Odisha's Jharsuguda, where flight operations came to a halt after few days of its inauguration, will soon have flight services to six cities of the country under the third phase of the UDAN scheme, informed Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan here today.

The six cities are Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Raipur, Hyderabad and Delhi. This apart, Bhubaneswar airport will feature flight services to Varanasi, Rourkela, Kalaikunda and Jagdalpur under UDAN-3, Pradhan said.

Furthermore, the new airport at Rourkela will be connected to Raipur and Bhubaneswar, the minister added.

He informed that Rs 1200 crore has been allocated by the Central Government for improving air connectivity in Odisha. The amount will be spent on the development of new airports at Rourkela, Utkela, Jeypore and upgradation of the existing terminal and a new integrated terminal at Bhubaneswar Airport, he said.

The Central Government has also ensured that the state receives the second highest Viability Gap Funding allocation amongst all states in India with a VGF amount of Rs 101 crores per annum, Pradhan said.

Notably, the Jharsuguda airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 22, last year. However, operations stopped at the airport after around 15 days as Air Odisha airline suspended its flight services. Air Odisha had bagged the permission to operate flights from Jharsuguda to Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Raipur under UDAN.