Soon, fog won’t hit flight operations at Patna airport

PATNA: Foggy mornings won’t affect flight operations at Patna’s Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport. “We have installed additional approach lights that will allow the flights to land even when the visibility is of 1,000m,” airport director Rajender Singh Lahauria tells Faryal Rumi in an interview. Excerpts:
What is the status of Patna airport terminal building expansion project?
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has started surveying the area on which the extended terminal building has to come up.The expansion work is likely to begin in January and take 42 months to be completed. The construction of a multi-level car parking lot will also begin in a month.
Flight operations are hit due to fog in the winter and, as a result, flyers have to suffer. The airport also gets overcrowded...
The security hold area has recently been extended on the first floor of terminal building and a temporary fabricated portable cabin created near the apron side. Together they can hold passengers of three aircraft. The airport now also has a fifth boarding gate. By December, we will extend the existing security hold area towards east. Once completed, it would accommodate 250 more passengers. We will soon have two more boarding gates.
What about the installation of additional approach lights, which can reduce the minimum visibility requirement from 1,200m to 1,000m?
The approach lights have been extended from 210m to 420m ahead of the runway and we are waiting for the Director General of Civil Aviation’s approval for its commissioning. Once it is commissioned by December 15, the visibility criterion would be reduced to 1,000m.
What has been the response to flight operations in night?
As of now, two daily flights take off from Patna in night for Kolkata and Bengaluru, and they remain almost full.
What is the status of the plan to develop a terminal airport at Bihta airbase?
As soon as the work of terminal building starts, we will start the development of civil enclave at Bihta airbase. It is likely to be completed by 2022. A rough sketch for the terminal building at Bihta has already been made by the AAI.
What about the plan for development of a temporary terminal building at Darbhanga airbase to facilitate regional flight operations under Udan scheme?
We have got the working permission from the ministry of defence and the work will start soon on 2.5acre land at the airbase.
Any possibility of international flights operating from Patna?
Some airlines official recently approached us to operate flights between Patna and Kathmandu, but we turned down the proposal. We may allow international flights after the terminal building is extended.