If all goes well, Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district will soon have its own airport at Erasama, providing provide air connectivity to the ambitious Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) project at Paradip in the state.

"Setting up an airport is a must for PCPIR project. It forms an important part of its external infrastructure development," said Jagatsinghpur district collector N C Jena.

The budgetary needs for external infrastructure to support the Rs 2.74 lakh crore PCPIR project were recently discussed in a high-level meeting, official sources said.

The international standard airport would require 1,000 acre of land in Erasama block and the cost of land acquisition has been estimated at Rs 96 crore, they said.

Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO), the nodal agency of the PCPIR project, was yet to send a land acquisition proposal for the airport project to the district administration.

"However, we are ready to meet with the required land, as nearly 700 acres of encroachment-free compact patch of government land is available in Erasama. Only 300 acres of private land has to be acquired," said Jagatsinghpur Special Land Acquisition Officer Nrusingha Charan Swain.

For Paradip, an emerging industrial hub, non-existence of an air link was turning out to be a stumbling block. Rail and road links to this port town also need to be improved, said another district official.

With spurt in industrial activities in and around Paradip, an air link has become an imperative keeping in view the huge investment that the region would attract in the coming days.

At present, provision of a port facility remains the most potent plus point for pooling in of industrial investment, he said.

Spread across 284.15 sq km along the coastal Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts, the PCPIR project will be completed in two phases through joint funding from the Centre, state and public-private-partnerships.