Several plans have been mooted for smooth functioning of flights from Patna airport.

Among them are regular pruning of trees around the airport and installing new lights on the Shaheed Pir Ali Khan Marg next to the airport.

Directions have also been given to identify illegal buildings in the Phulwarisharif area near the airport and demolish them.

The state civil aviation department has been told to ensure immediate handover of land of the state hangar to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for carrying out expansion work of Patna airport.

These decisions were taken during a meeting earlier this week attended by AAI and state government officials including Patna divisional commissioner Anand Kishor.

"It has been decided to prune trees all along the periphery of the airport premises every six months," said Patna airport director Rajendra Singh Lahouria. "The trees create obstructions for smooth landing of aircraft."

Trees also hamper police patrolling, Lahouria said, and it has been decided to cut the trees up to 15m of the airport building's boundary wall.

All these measures will help in smoother flight operations, he added.

The Union civil aviation ministry, in a safety audit, had said that Patna airport may have to be shut down if necessary infrastructure changes are not made by the state government.

Patna was listed among 11 most critical airports in the country. The safety audit was carried out in the aftermath of the Mangalore air crash in which 158 persons were killed when an Air India flight from Dubai overshot the runway while landing on May 22, 2010.

Patna aiport's short runway and obstacles in the form of trees on both approaches of the runway and several other deficiencies, including obstacles on private land around the airport, had been highlighted by then civil aviation minister Praful Patel in a letter dated August 3, 2010.

The AAI had found that the Patna airport had 101 obstructions next to the tarmac. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had even held back the operating licence of Patna airport because of obstructions in the aircraft approach funnel.

However, the airport continued to operate without a valid licence.

Following the Union civil aviation ministry report, the Bihar government decided to cut or prune nearly 4,000 trees in the Patna zoo for airport safety. A few hundred trees were also pruned but later after resentment from various quarters the government changed its stance and refused to chop trees even at the cost of Patna airport being shut down. After another ultimatum from the AAI, the state government climbed down from its earlier position and decided to prune the trees.

The length of the Patna airport runway is only 1,924m, one of the shortest in the country, which does not enable bigger aircraft like Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 to operate from here under the present circumstances, an AAI official said on Thursday.

"Pruning and cutting of trees are essential for safe landing of aircraft at the Patna airport. There are around 30 flights being operated from Patna every day, but if the trees are not pruned regularly, it will create a security hazard," the official added.

Major airports across the country are required to have a minimum runway length of 1,800m, he said.

The meeting last week issued directions to the Nagar Parishad in Phulwarisharif to identify buildings constructed illegally. The Nagar Parishad executive officer has been asked to submit a report within a week identifying all such buildings.

According ministry of civil aviation rules, a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the AAI is a must for a high-rise building within a 20kmradius of an airport.

On the installation of lights on Shaheed Pir Ali Khan Marg - from Patel Chowk to IAS Bhavan - Kishor has directed the executive officer of New Capital circle, Patna, to prepare the design of the lights in such a way that it does not obstruct landing and take-off operations.

Earlier, Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation's move to install LED lights on Airport Road had hit a roadblock as the Patna airport authorities had objected to the proposal citing technical glitches owing to absence of any buffer zone between the runway and the road.

It was said that LED lights might confuse pilots.

Lahouria said: "Only low-height poles will be permitted for installing the lights."