Airport land issue: Patna's loss, Gaya's gain

Gaya: The state government's refusal to provide land for a new airport at Patna may prove a boon for the Gaya International Airport, nearly four times bigger than the existing Patna airport.
Airports Authority of India (AAI), as it is, has made its intentions known to develop the Gaya airport as a standby to the Kolkata airport to divert planes in case of any problem at the Kolkata airport.
As against the 254 acres of the existing airport at Patna, the Gaya air-port is spread over an area of 954 acres and the process for acquiring an-other 100 acres of land for the runway expansion is in an advanced stage. Another 100 acres of land of the Gaya airport is under encroachment and with some administrative will, the encroachments can easily be removed. According to Gaya DM Sanjay Kumar, land from four different revenue villages are being acquired for the runway expansion and the acquisition process for two of the four revenue villages has already been completed. Once this acquisition process is completed and encroachments are removed, the Gaya airport will have an area of about 1,200 acres.
13/08/10 Abdul Qadir/Times of India

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Categories: airports aug 2010