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Patna,(BiharTimes): Even as the number of air travellers are increasing and there is urgent need for big planes to land in Patna the problems of Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport is increasing instead of decreasing.
Till a few years back the trees of Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, the Secretariat tower and railway utilities along the Howrah-Delhi tracks were some of the major obstacles for the pilots to land and take off. A Calcutta-Patna Alliance Air plane crashed just outside Patna airport in July 2000 killing 57 on board. |
But now a number of electric poles, mobile towers, rooftop water tanks, high-mast streetlights, especially over the railway flyovers built in the vicinity, have compounded the problems for the pilots.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) authorities accuse the state government of total non-cooperation. Keeping in mind the recent statement of chief minister one of the officials went on to comment that Nitish Kumar actually wants to take the airport to Nalanda, therefore, he would do nothing to solve the problems here.
For example, the officials alleged that while the state government can uproot hundreds of trees in Beer Chand Patel Marg and Bailey Road for no big reason, it is yet to prune over 2917 trees of Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park as demanded by the AAI.
When the trees in roads of Patna were being felled some school children associated with Taru Mitra strongly protested. Reports said that the state government was told to take immediate steps with regard to removal of the obstructions at a meeting of senior officials of AAI, the state civil aviation and state environment and forests departments in Delhi on May 24. But hardly any work has been done so far.
But, according to Abhay Kumar, the director of Biological Park, the environment and the forests department of Bihar had sent a proposal to the Union ministry of environment and forests for pruning 2,917 trees at Patna zoo. But till now no reply has come. Therefore, the trees could not be pruned.Zoo authorities say that pruning of the trees to heights of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 15 metres from the ground would kill almost 900 trees.
Similarly, a month ago, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) had sent notices to 11 private residential apartments, identified as obstructions, but only five responded with clarifications. Though apartments and other buildings might have come up in recent years trees of zoo have been a source of trouble for airport since long.
Meanwhile, the news of the likely shifting of Patna airport to Nalanda district is being resented by frequent fliers. They fear that they will have to spare several more hours to cover 70-80 kms or even more. Besides, Nalanda is not so well connected to all the districts of Bihar as Patna. In that case the Gaya international airport, which is already functioning is a more suitable alternative, they say.
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