Move afoot to provide air connectivity to Bhagalpur

BHAGALPUR: Plans are afoot for expansion of Bhagalpur airstrip and bring it under the ambit of union ministry of civil aviation’s regional air connectivity scheme (RCS) –Udan—with the objective of “Let the common citizen of the country fly”.
The Bhagalpur air strip is now being developed under the Smart City scheme to make it compatible with the norms of RCS, so that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) can start air services from here also.
The board of directors of Bhagalpur Smart City Limited (BSCL) comprising the chairman (divisional commissioner), district magistrate, SSP, mayor, municipal commissioner and chief executive officer of the company, held a meeting on Tuesday to review the progress of development work going on at the airstrip.
It was also decided in the meeting to engage a consultancy firm to develop the airstrip in accordance with the norms of AAI for RCS compatibility on a route length for operating aircraft between a distance of 200 to 800 km.
Mayor Sima Saha said, “The required infrastructure including a modern terminal building would be developed under Smart City project at Bhagalpur airstrip. The idea is to put smaller cities and remote regions on the aviation map by getting low cost domestic airlines to ply on regional routes under the Udan scheme.”
The Smart City Mission is a central government scheme launched in June 2015 and Bhagalpur was selected in the second list in May 2016.
Demand for regular air services from Bhagalpur is being made since 1980. Several teams from the AAI also visited the airstrip several times in the past few years and acknowledged that starting commercial air services is feasible.
Efforts are now on to commence flight operations from Darbhanga airbase under the Udan scheme from 2019. The Indian Airforce has recently given nod to AAI for commencing flight operations from Darbhanga airbase and groundwork is underway for developing a temporary civil enclave and other allied structures.
Budget airline SpiceJet will fly ATRs or other smaller aircraft from Darbhanga to New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru within six months.