Land sought from air force for instant upgradation of Darbhanga airport

A passenger’s footfall data showed that a total of 1845 flyers in as many as 14 flights travelled to and from Darbhanga airport in a day on Friday, June 18, indicating its popularity as a destination on India’s aviation map.

Airport Authority of India said efforts were on to get 2.43 acres of land from the Indian Air Force to upgrade the existing infrastructure at Darbhanga airport in Bihar in the interim while preparation for a wider expansion of a more permanent nature continues.

Darbhanga airport was made operation in November last year. (HT Photo)

The airport currently functions from an interim terminal building on IAF land measuring 2.3 acres. However, a sharp increase in footfall at the airport--made operational on November 8 last year under Centre’s RCS-UDAN project for building regional air connectivity infrastructure-- has put pressure on the existing facilities resulting in the need for another 2.43 acre of land adjacent to the current terminal building for the purpose of an immediate expansion.

A passenger’s footfall data showed that a total of 2,139 flyers in as many as 16 flights travelled to and from Darbhanga airport in a day on Friday, June 19, indicating its popularity as a destination on India’s aviation map.

An airport official said on condition of anonymity that a passenger’s shade outside the main airport gate, vehicles access to civil enclave from the main road, a shelter between the main gate and the civil enclave apart from extended parking space are some pressing requirements from the passengers’ point of view that the upgrade was likely to resolve.

Apart from SpiceJet, which connected Darbhanga to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, IndiGo airlines was all set to start flights on Hyderabad and Kolkata routes beginning July 5, which was likely to put more pressure on the existing facilities.

Recently, two AAI staff from Gaya airport were brought to Darbhanga to deal with the rising volume of traffic, taking the total to 9 staff members, which was far less than what is required to man the affairs at this airport, an AAI official said. Darbhanga airport director Biplab Kumar Mondal could not be reached for his comments.

AAI chairman Sanjiv Kumar said the authority has been seeking 54 acres of land from the Bihar government for construction of a big terminal to house the civil enclave and parking space apart from 24 acres of land for establishing CAT-I precision approach lighting system. It has already prepared a master plan for the expansion. The AAI chairman added that the state government had already identified a suitable chunk of land on the city side near NH-57 and now the required land needs to be allotted.