DARBHANGA: The acquisition of 24 acres of land sought by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) from the Bihar government for runway expansion and provision of night landing facilities at Darbhanga airport has been completed, a Darbhanga district official said on Wednesday.
The official added that the process to acquire 54 acres for the construction of a permanent terminal building will be completed by February next year.
“The district land acquisition officer (DLAO) has already handed over the charge of the 24 acres land parcel to the joint secretary (cabinet secretariat) on Monday so that it can now be transferred to AAI (Airports Authority of India) on behalf of the state government”, the district administration’s spokesperson NK Gupta said. He added that the process was completed in 10 months.
The airport became operational under the regional connectivity scheme on November 8, 2020. Spicejet introduced flight operations from Darbhanga on three routes to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Later, IndiGo airlines also launched operations on the Kolkata and Hyderabad sectors.
AAI has carried out a bunch of civil and other works such as resurfacing of the runway, construction of civil enclave, construction of taxi-links and other passenger amenities,
Bihar minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said the civil aviation ministry has dropped its projected requirement of 31 acres of land for the construction of a permanent terminal building. “The AAI inspection team had now sought 78 acres of land – 54 acres for construction of a permanent terminal and 24 acres for installation of instrument landing system (ILS)- to facilitate night landing and cope with bad weather”, Jha, who recently met Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Delhi, said.
“I have urged the civil aviation minister to introduce more flights and allot empty slots also to different aviation companies so that passengers get the benefits of competition. For now, Spicejet has reduced the number of its flights from Darbhanga due to the regulator’s decision to allow only 50% of the airline’s aircraft to operate due to safety concerns,” the minister added.
