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Bihar CM asked to implement safety advice at Patna
In a letter to Kumar, Singh said a proposal for issue of license to the Patna airport was pending before his ministry.
Patna: Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh has asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to ensure implementation of safety advice and guidelines by the Civil Aviation Ministry failing which DGCA might be constrained to stop operations of bigger aircraft at Patna airport.
In a letter to Kumar, Singh said a proposal for issue of license to the Patna airport was pending before his ministry.
He said Patna airport was considered to be the most critical in terms of flight operations due to short runway and obstacles from trees in both its approaches and several other deficiencies including obstacles on private land around the airport, which needed to be removed. Singh said the runway also did not not have the Runway End Safety Area to contain aircraft in case of an accident or overshoot.
Due to non-availability of the Runway and Safety Area, the runway distance was shortened and the category of the airport came under 3C category which permitted the operation of only B 737-700, ATR and CRJ and Airbus 319, Q400. He said the Patna airport had also been inspected by International Civil aviation Organisation and considered to be unsuitable for operations of bigger aircraft like Airbus 320, 737NG.
Earlier, the Airports of Authority of India had also written to the state to prune about 3000 trees at the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park but no significant progres seemed to have been made, Singh said. He said that to resolve these issues, a meeting was held in the Ministry of Civil Aviation in May which was attended by Bihar Principal Secretary Ravi Kant.
The action taken report in compliance with the decisions taken at the meeting was yet to be received from Bihar while DGCA has also issued an order to the CS to take immediate action for removal and pruning of trees forming obstacles, Singh said.
He said the notified date for obtaining license which was to expire on June 30, 2012, has been extended upto December 31 this year.
He requested Kumar to look into the matter and issue instructions for implementation of the Safety guidelines and advice issued by Union Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA for safe operations.
Otherwise, DGCA might be constrained to stop operations of bigger aircraft like A-320 which may cause huge inconvenience to the people, he said.
PTI
In a letter to Kumar, Singh said a proposal for issue of license to the Patna airport was pending before his ministry.
He said Patna airport was considered to be the most critical in terms of flight operations due to short runway and obstacles from trees in both its approaches and several other deficiencies including obstacles on private land around the airport, which needed to be removed. Singh said the runway also did not not have the Runway End Safety Area to contain aircraft in case of an accident or overshoot.
Due to non-availability of the Runway and Safety Area, the runway distance was shortened and the category of the airport came under 3C category which permitted the operation of only B 737-700, ATR and CRJ and Airbus 319, Q400. He said the Patna airport had also been inspected by International Civil aviation Organisation and considered to be unsuitable for operations of bigger aircraft like Airbus 320, 737NG.
Earlier, the Airports of Authority of India had also written to the state to prune about 3000 trees at the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park but no significant progres seemed to have been made, Singh said. He said that to resolve these issues, a meeting was held in the Ministry of Civil Aviation in May which was attended by Bihar Principal Secretary Ravi Kant.
The action taken report in compliance with the decisions taken at the meeting was yet to be received from Bihar while DGCA has also issued an order to the CS to take immediate action for removal and pruning of trees forming obstacles, Singh said.
He said the notified date for obtaining license which was to expire on June 30, 2012, has been extended upto December 31 this year.
He requested Kumar to look into the matter and issue instructions for implementation of the Safety guidelines and advice issued by Union Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA for safe operations.
Otherwise, DGCA might be constrained to stop operations of bigger aircraft like A-320 which may cause huge inconvenience to the people, he said.
PTI