After that came the proposal to shift the airport to Bihta, some 40 km from Patna where Indian Air Force already has its base. Then the name of Silao near Biharsharif was floated. But it was too far away from Patna.

Then it was suggested that the international airport of Gaya will work as the main airport of Bihar and would share the burden of passengers with Patna. The state government, according to the media reports, is now looking for land for Patna airport in Sonepur, just north of upcoming road-cum-rail bridge over river Ganga.

Though no final decision has been taken and no expert opinion sought over the suitability of place yet media has come up with stories in this regard. Such reports give ample opportunity to the speculators and real estate dealers to earn some quick bucks of the particular place. Be it in BIhta or Silao the land price shot up in not time.

The proposed land, according to the reports, is near the northern end of the bridge and a few kilometres away from the confluence of rivers Gandak and Ganga, where the annual cattle fair is organized. Whether the soil is suitable for airport or not has not yet been tested. Proximity to Patna is an important factor but not the only criteria for the selection of land.No doubt if the airport really comes up in this particular piece of land it would be closest to Patna, even less than Bihta.

The existing Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport is not only facing space constraints it is also small for the future requirements. The number of air travellers are increasing gradually all over the country.Reaching Sonepur via Mahatma Gandhi Setu takes more than an hour as it is over 30 km away from Patna, but after the completion of Digha rail-cum-road bridge the distance would be cut to half.

Reports also suggest that there would be no hurdle of land acquisition and hardly any construction in Sonepur. There is no tower like the one in Secretariat and trees as in Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park in case of the present airport. But all this depends on Airports Authority of India, which has to build the airport after the approval by a team of experts.

The state government has no big role in the construction of airport. Aviation scientist and chief executive officer of Bangalore-based Avembsys Technologies Private Limited, Faizan Mirza, was quoted in The Telegraph as saying: “The new airport should be developed on international standards and should have connectivity to all airports in south-east Asia.

The airport should have a runway of minimum 3,500m, which would allow landing of bigger aircraft, including Airbus A3AT and Boing 747.”In order to develop the alternative airport at Bihta, the government would have to provide 1,000 acre in addition to the existing land on which the Indian Air Force airbase is located. Setting up the airport here seems less practical as acquisition of additional land would mean re-location of hundreds of families.

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