The pilgrim town of Puri will get an international airport. The Odisha government has initiated the tender process for the construction of the Puri Shree Jagannath International Airport under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, with an estimated budget of Rs 2,203 crore.

The tender inviting bids was floated by the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO).

The IDCO in its tender order said, “On behalf of Commerce and Transport Department, Government of Odisha, the chief general manager (Planning and Coordination), IDCO Towers, Janpath, Bhubaneswar invites international competitive bids in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode in double cover system through online mode only.”

The IDCO has set a target for the bidders to complete the construction in 1,095 days. The online tender process will start from February 21 and the technical bids will be opened on April 21. The commercial operation of the airport will commence in seven years.

For the project, the state government has the required license from different agencies, including the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, for land acquisition of the forest land to take up the project.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May last year and discussed various issues on Odisha’s demand for the Shree Jagannath International Airport.