Bhubaneswar: Nonresident Odias (NROs) living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) flew in on the inaugural Dubai-Bhubaneswar direct flight just to meet Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and thank him for his intervention in kick-starting these flights.
Senior member of the Odia Community of UAE Priyadarshee Panigrahi, who is the head of an Indian MNC’s MENA operations and is based at Dubai, met the Chief Minister at ‘Naveen Nivas’ after landing from Dubai in the direct flight.
Panigrahi thanked the CM for the launch of these direct flight operations which was a long pending demand of the Odia diaspora.
Priyadarshee expressed his happiness that the Chief Minister had kept his word, given to the NROs in Dubai on June 22 that Dubai – BBSR direct flight operations would start soon.
“It was a wonderful feeling to fly from Dubai to Odisha directly in just about 4 hours, saving time, money and a lot of inconvenience. It was a dream come true for the Odia Community of UAE,” said Priyadarshee, who was accompanied by another Non Resident Odia, budding woman entrepreneur Abha Panigrahi.
As a gesture of thanks, he presented the CM with a memento – A ‘Khanjar’ which is a traditional dagger. In addition to this, a ‘thank you’ letter signed by a cross section of Odia residents in UAE was also handed over. Headlining the letter was Senior Community Member and Director and CEO of International Shipping & Logistics FZE (A Tata Group Company), Captain Soumya Ranjan Patnaik. Captain Patnaik is a mentor of the entire Odia Commnuty and has been in a senior leadership position with the Tata group for a long time.
Among the many signatories to the thank you letter were senior doctors Dr. Rajesh Pattanayak, Dr. Sudeep Mohapatra, senior bankers Sandeep Das, Lalatendu Mohanty, entrepreneurs Tushar Sahu, Richa Samantaray, railway safety expert Bira Kishore Samal, finance professional Rajat Rath and renowned Odia artist Mona Biswarupa Mohanty.
The letter talked about the quick and honest fulfilment of the promise Naveen Patnaik made to the Odia Community of the UAE the 29th of June last year, during his trip to Dubai. It is a boon for all Odias living in the UAE and makes their journey from Dubai to Bhubaneswar a smooth and comfortable affair. The State government’s stepping in and assuring the airlines of bearing the cost of operations is indeed a very novel concept by the Govt. of Odisha.
The community hoped that apart from making the diaspora’s journey back home, comfortable, the direct flight will promote tourism and investment in Odisha.
The Chief Minister was happy to meet the Non Resident Odias. He heard them out patiently and was happy to hear of the convenience that this flight brings to the Odia diaspora. He said ‘Welcome home”. In addition to this he presented Priyadarshee and Abha with his trademark gift the ‘Hockey T-shirt’.
Patnaik talked about the efforts of Odisha in promoting hockey across India. On being asked when is he expected to visit Dubai, he answered with a smile and said ‘pretty soon.’
