Patna airport seeks Bihar govt’s help for early transfer of land for expansion

‘Parallel taxi track will be constructed at Patna airport once the proposed land (measuring around 26 acres) is transferred to the AAI by the state government.’

The Airport authority of India (AAI) has drawn Bihar government’s attention for facilitating an early transfer of land to develop fresh infrastructure at the Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) airport in state capital Patna as part of its ongoing mega redevelopment plan, airport officials said.

Jayprakash Narayan International Airport in Patna. (PTI)

A senior official of the JPNI said the government’s attention towards the long-pending demand for transfer of additional land was drawn through a string of tweets from the official handle of Patna airport on Friday.

In a tweet, carrying sketch of the master plan, the authority stated “…parallel taxi track (PTT) will be constructed at Patna airport once the proposed land (measuring around 26 acres) is transferred to the AAI by the state government… The PTT will drastically improve the runway’s flight handling capacity by accommodating more flights in a given time. This will also reduce flight delays on ground and in air resulting in fuel saving and reduced CO2 emissions.”

Officials said construction of PTT and additional parking bay would begin once they get the required portion of land adjacent to the western side of the terminal building. “The ₹1217-crore redevelopment plan of Patna airport, which took off in September-October 2018, has already suffered delays due to the Covid pandemic. We had an initial target to complete the project and strengthen the airport to handle 80 lakh passengers per annum from the current handling capacity of 45 lakh passengers by June 2021. However, it had to be extended till December 2023,” said an official.

Patna district magistrate (DM) Chandrashekhar Singh, who attended the meeting convened by chief secretary Amir Subhani, said necessary clearance has been sought from the ICAR to transfer the land. “Hopefully, they will get ICAR land by May. As far as the state government’s land measuring around six acres is concerned, it’s ready for the transfer anytime they want,” he said.

AAI officials said that the airport would have parking bay for 11 flights, against the current capacity of six airplanes, at a time once the redevelopment plan is executed. The state government has already handed over around 15.50 acres of land to the AAI, which has been used to expand the domestic terminal building and other civil infrastructure, such as passengers’ vehicle exit and cargo handling facility. “Till now, barely 32% of the work could be completed in three packages,” said another official.