Earlier, there were plans to pull down the historical clock tower of the secretariat. Telegraph picture

Patna, Aug. 31: The scare is over for now. Jumbo aircraft will land and take-off from the Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport.

The state government has complied with the directorate-general of civil aviation’s (DGCA’s) directive to prune 249 trees on the Patna zoo premises.

Sharing this information today, cabinet co-ordination department principal secretary Afzal Amanullah said: “DGCA had set the August 31 deadline for meeting this norm. We fulfilled it well before the cut-off date.”

The state civil aviation department is under the jurisdiction of Amanullah.

A day earlier, Amanullah visited Delhi and apprised the director-general of civil aviation, Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman and Union civil aviation secretary of the steps being taken by the state government to remove the obstacles in the approach funnel.

The hurdles were not allowing the aircraft to use the full runway length of the existing airport.

Amanullah told the officials that the state government would meet most of the conditions put forth by the DGCA in the next six-seven months.

The specifications include pruning of about 3,700 trees located inside and outside the Patna zoo, removal of street light poles and advertisement boards on roads outside the Patna airport and demolition of parts of buildings on the north-east side of the airport.

Tower to stand tall

Amanullah made it clear to the officials that reducing the height of the secretariat tower clock by 11.5 metre was a bit difficult task as it was a heritage building.

Earlier, there were plans to pull down the historical clock tower of the secretariat as part of a plan to remove obstacles along the approach funnel of the Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport.

The government has drawn up a list of measures to make the airport safe following observations of the directorate-general of civil aviation that the obstacles had rendered the airport “not fit” for operation of bigger aircraft like Airbus 320s and Boeing 737s.

Pilots operating on the Patna route have no margin of error. The actual runway length is 2,286 metres (7,500 feet approximately), which is below the ideal 8,000 feet required for Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.

The principal secretary also apprised them of removal of railway cabin and electrical wires on railway track were not under the control of the state government.

They were under the jurisdiction of the Indian Railways, he said.

“The officials whom I met assured that they would look into these points,” the principal secretary said.

Amanullah also made it clear to the Airports Authority of India that the state government was not in a position to acquire land in the Bihta area, which has been selected as a prospective site by the AAI for setting up a new airport in Patna, as the price of the land was very high.

Discussions on an alternative site near Nalanda remained inconclusive.

The AAI officials made it clear that in next three-four years a new airport would have to be developed in Patna because there was no scope to undertake expansion work at the existing airport.