Work on for early take-off from Purnia airport: Nitish

The Bihar CM said the government had already allotted land for the pathway and other works have to be done by the union civil aviation ministry.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said the state government was making all efforts for construction of a road to connect the upcoming civil enclave at the Indian Air Force (IAF) airport in Purnia from the nearest highway.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar during an event in Patna on Tuesday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

“We have been inspecting the project. Work is going on for making the link road,” Kumar told reporters in response to a question.

The CM said the government had already allotted land for the pathway and other works have to be done by the union civil aviation ministry.

A controversy has erupted over the operationalisation of the civil enclave at Purnia IAF airbase following Union home minister Amit Shah’s statement at a rally in the town on September 23.

Shah had said that the civil enclave at the Air Force Station at Chunapur, 10 kilometres from Purnia town was almost operational and claimed it would benefit the people of 12 districts in the state, who would not need to go to Bagdogra or Patna to take a flight to reach Delhi or Mumbai.

Santosh Kushwaha, JD-U MP from Purnia, said, “No work on the civil enclave or civil terminal has been done yet.”

A civil enclave is an area allotted at an airport belonging to the armed forces for providing civilian air transport services.

On March 10 this year, the the then district magistrate (DM) of Purnia, Rahul Kumar, had tweeted, “Happy to share that our consistent efforts for Purnia airport have finally paid off today. Patna high court has remanded all seven pending cases to collector’s court for disposal. We will be in position now to hand over the required land very soon,” Kumar had tweeted, expressing hope that this would pave the way to the construction of the civil enclave at Chunapur air force station.

The process for building civil terminals at Bihta and Purnia airports run by IAF in Bihar had started at the same time and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had asked for requisite land from the state government for both the projects.

In case of Purnia, AAI has alleged that the state government was yet to give an “assurance letter” to the AAI regarding road connectivity between the civil enclave to highway, because of which the process of handover of land could not be completed.

The status of the “assurance letter” was not immediately clear.

In 2016, AAI had asked for 50 acres of land from the state government, along with an “assurance letter” about road connectivity, for the development of the civil enclave at the air force station in Purnia.

Social activist Vijay Kumar Shreevastava, who has been raising the issue of a civil enclave at air force station in Purnia, said, “The handover of the land to AAI is hanging in balance as the state government has not yet given ‘assurance letter’ to the AAI regarding four-lane road connectivity from civil terminal to highway.”

He said ₹150 crore released by the Union civil aviation ministry for the construction of the civil enclave has been lying with AAI since 2015.

In 2012, at the initiative of the then wing commander at Chunapur air force station, Vishwajeet Kumar, flight services between Purnia and Patna and Purnia and Kolkata had started. However, it was discontinued next year.

The runway of Chunapur air force station (11,000X150 feet) is similar to those airports in big cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mangalore.

Chunapur air force station came into existence after the Indo-China war in 1963 and in 1976 civil air services were introduced, but were discontinued after two years in 1978.

The flight from Purnia, however, was introduced in 1956, but was discontinued the same year.