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Anand Mohan Sahay in Patna
With the threat of closure looming large over Patna's Jaiprakash Narayan Airport after the civil aviation ministry had issued a 'security warning', the Bihar government on Friday agreed to prune the trees in the adjoining Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park and provide land for the extension of the runway.
At a meeting, attended by Bihar Minister for Forest and Environment Jagdanand Singh and other top officials, the government decided to allot 0.2 acres of land adjacent to the 4.02 acre plot at Dhobi Ghat, which had already been allotted to the Airports Authority of India on the eastern flank of the airport.
Efforts will be made to acquire a portion of land owned by the speedcraft factory on the western flank, Singh said.
Singh said the state government stuck to its demand for shifting the airport to Bihta, about 30 km from Patna. The Chief Minister Rabri Devi had already written a letter to civil aviation ministry for shifting the airport for safety reasons, he said.
The Director General of Civil Aviation had in its report to the ministry in the aftermath of the crash of an Alliance Air flight in Patna in July, 2000, which claimed 61 lives, had described the airport as 'most unsafe'.
Patna airport sources said the Indian Airlines and Sahara Airways have complained that due to the insufficient airstrip length, they were forced to reduce the number of passengers, making their operations economically unviable.
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