Bihar CM inspects ongoing construction works at civil enclave of Darbhanga airport

PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Wednesday inspected ongoing construction works at civil enclave of Darbhanga airport and asked the officials of Airport Authority of India (AAI) to complete the remaining works at the earliest keeping in mind ‘huge importance’ of the project.
He also spoke to the union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri and the AAI chairman Arvind Singh over the phone from the construction site and urged both of them to take necessary steps to remove the hurdles which are coming in way of completing the project.
“Certain issues related to the construction works were solved immediately at the spot soon after the CM spoke to Puri over the phone,” a state government official who was accompanying Nitish, told TOI over phone.
A civil enclave was being constructed at the Darbhanga airport, which is an air base of Indian Air Force (IAF).
“The civil airport at Darbhanga is a very important project. Beginning of flights from this airport will provide convenience to people of entire north Bihar. The opening of this civil airport will not only increase economic activities in the entire Mithila region but also provide new avenues for business and trade,” Nitish said while inspecting the construction works.
The CM further asked Darbhanga DM Tyagrajan SM, who was present at the construction site, to ensure regular monitoring of the ongoing construction works to complete the project at the earliest.
A DyGM-rank officer of the AAI, who was present at the civil enclave, informed the CM that 55% works of the civil air-strip had already been completed.
CM further asked the AAI officials to widen the taxi track and also expedite the construction work of terminal building. CM also suggested constructing a separate link road for connecting the terminal building to the NH-527B. He also suggested creating the entry and exit to the terminal building from gate no-1, so that the main entrance to the civil airport and the air forces’ air base remains separate.
Accompanied by the state’s water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, chief secretary Deepak Kumar and several other senior officials, the CM made a stopover to inspect the construction works at the civil enclave while he was on way to Jainagar via road.
Earlier on May 11, union minister Puri had said the civil aviation ministry has requested the Indian Air Force to allow resumption of construction work for the Darbhanga airport.
“A request has been made to the IAF to allow the work to restart. Once we begin, all works should be over by October 2020," the civil aviation minister had said on Twitter. "Work on Darbhanga airport was in full swing till it had to be temporarily halted due to the lockdown necessitated by our fight against COVID-19m," Puri had tweeted.