IAF airport at Bihta to be covnverted into civil airport

Law Kumar Mishra

Patna: Indian Air Force airport at Bihta, 25 km from Patna, will be converted into a civil airport soon. Bihar cabinet on November 15, 2016, decided to acquire over 126 acre of land at Bihta to facilitate establishment of civil enclave and ease traffic load at Patna airport. The cabinet decided to allot 106 acre of land free of cost to Airport Authority of  India (AAI) for development of civil airport as an alternative to Patna airport which is in the heart of the town. Remaining 20 acre will be used for development of commercial and residential complexes in the area close to airport.

Bihta has been included in the capital region under the recently approved Master Plan of Patna. Bihta is linked to Patna by railway line on Delhi-Howrah route and by road to the state capital. IIT has already come up there and IIM is also likely to be established at Bihta. In 1976 when Patna airport was flooded and air services were suspended, Bihta  airport was used for landing of then PM Indira Gandhi’s plane and sorties by the  helicopters engaged in relief operations.  At present, Patna airport handles over 30 services of different airlines daily linking Patna to New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Lucknow  and Ranchi.
The cabinet also decided to sanction Rs 23 crore for development of a ropeway in Banavar hills in Jehanabad district as tourist attraction. The three – tier 20 point programme implementation committees would be dissolved and integrated into one committee in place of block, district and state level committees.
The cabinet also approved proposals to terminate the services of Dr Mamata Prasad, the then medical officer (MO) at Samastipur and Dr Faiyaz Ahmad, the then MO, Singhoura in Nalanda district, for remaining absent for more than five years.