Land acquisition process for Darbhanga airport completed

PATNA: The process of acquisition of remaining land out of the total 78 acres sought by the Airports Authority India (AAI) from the Bihar government for Darbhanga airport has been completed on Tuesday.
The land was required for the construction of state-of-the-art civil enclave, expansion of runway and installation of night landing facility at Darbhanga airport.
More than Rs342.43 crore has been spent by the state government on land acquisition in two instalments for Darbhanga airport. About 54 acre land has been acquired for the new civil enclave, which includes terminal building, cargo complex, multi-level car parking, fire station and other infrastructure. The remaining 24 acre is for installation of Category 1 or CAT 1 ILS (instrument landing system) and runway extension.
Expressing happiness over the completion of the land acquisition process, minister of water resources-cum-information and public relations, Sanjay Kumar Jha, thanked chief minister Nitish Kumar and hoped the construction woek on the airport premises will begin soon to cater to the ever-growing footfall of the passengers at the airport.
Jha said the district land acquisition officer, Darbhanga, has completed the process of acquisition of 52.65 acres of land in Vasudevpur village under Sadar police station area and has started the necessary legal process on Tuesday to transfer it to the AAI. “A total of Rs 282.16 crore has been spent for the land acquisition. Earlier, 24 acre land was demanded for the expansion of Darbhanga airport, after completing the acquisition process in October last year.
A total of Rs 60.27 crore were spent on the acquisition of 24 acre land,” he said. “In view of the immense success of Darbhanga airport and the ever-increasing number of passengers here, a total of 78 acres of land was demanded by the AAI for the construction of civil Enclave and other facilities,” he added. The minister said with the construction of modern terminal building at Darbhanga airport, necessary facilities will be available to the passengers. “With the installation of CAT 1, the movement of aircraft will be possible even in the night and during the winter time and inclement weather conditions.