Bihar: 31 acre land needed for permanent civil enclave at Darbhanga airport

PATNA: The officials of state government, Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) discussed several pending issues related to Darbhanga airport at a meeting held on its premises on Saturday.
Principal secretary (cabinet secretariat department) Sanjay Kumar said issues related to land acquisition for a permanent civil enclave and installation of instrument landing system (ILS) were taken up at the meeting.Officials of Darbhanga district administration were also present to discuss the short-term and long-term measures required to be taken for smooth commercial operations at the airport.
“Lots of issues related to Darbhanga airport need to be resolved. First, the state government has to acquire 31 acre land and transfer it to the IAF, who in lieu of that would transfer the same chunk of land to the AAI for the construction of a civil enclave. We can acquire land anywhere, but the IAF has to give a no-objection certificate,” Sanjay said.
“The proposed civil enclave requires a four-lane connectivity from the National Highway. Some land has to be acquired for direct connectivity to the enclave. Besides, there is one road on one side of the runway and, because of that, the airport surface is slightly below the road. A person standing on this road can see what’s happening inside the airport. A view cutter is required to give security cover to the airport,” Sanjay said.
The AAI officials have also raised concern over the blue bulls (nilgai) living in the green cover on the airport premises. “To prevent the bulls from coming near the runway, barbed wire fencing is needed on its either side as a short-term measure. On the southern side of the runway, fencing was done by the IAF and work is in progress on the northern side,” said the principal secretary.
For long-term planning, the officials of environment, forest and climate change department have been asked to tranquillize the blue bulls and shift them to some other area. According to AAI officials, the blue bull population has increased over the years on the Darbhanga airport premises as it was non-operational for a long time.
Vehicle parking is another issue faced by the flyers and the visitors at the Darbhanga airport. The state government has asked the IAF to provide some land to develop parking lot for up to 300 vehicles.
Sanjay has also asked the AAI officials to install ILS for smooth landing and departure of flights in view of foggy conditions during the winter season. “Landing and departure will not be a problem for this winter season as the airport is handling only three flights per day and also in daytime. Besides, temporary fights of IAF are there. However, once the number of flights increases, ILS will be required,” he said.
The number of flights at Darbhanga may increase up to 12 in due course as the Air India and IndiGo have made inquiries to start commercial flights on different routes.
At present, the airport is handling three flights of SpiceJet to Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.