New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar Vivek Thakur on Friday met Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia at his office to appraise him of the progress of the proposed Bihta International Airport. The meeting lasted for about 30 minutes.
During the meeting, Thakur also appraised Scindia of the obstacles in land acquisition for the airport after which Scindia assured Thakur that the ministry will work on removing the obstacles and all possible help will be provided to the state for the same.
In this context, Thakur also spoke to Patna District Magistrate Dr Chandrashekhar Singh and asked him to prepare a report on the issues faced by the administration for the construction which will later be given to the aviation ministry.
The airport authority has already earmarked 108 acres of land received earlier from the Bihar government and now is waiting for the nod for land for the runway extension. The work on the airport will be completed in two phases.
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In the first phase, a target was set to prepare the airport for 25 lakh annual passenger capacity. The purpose of airport expansion in Bihta was to facilitate the movement of large aircraft and to make it compatible with international airport standards.
At present, the runway length of the Bihata airport is 8,200 feet and a target was set to increase it to 12 thousand feet for the runway of Category One and 191.5 acres of land is required for the development of an international level runway.
The Bihar government has so far given 108 acres of land to the airport authority for free. Civil enclave is proposed to be constructed at Bihta at a cost of 937 crores.
