Patna, April 12: A new terminal building for the airport here will have to wait for now.

The state government is yet to decide whether it would shift certain buildings used by it from their present location and make available the land for the new facility.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had sent a letter to the government in March this year for shifting the state hangar, the Bihar Flying Club and the IAS Bhavan so that the land, on which these buildings are located, could be used for the new terminal building. These buildings are located adjacent to the airport premises.

The AAI letter has mentioned that keeping the trend of passengers’ flow (see chart) in mind, it had become necessary to set up a new terminal building.

The letter also talks of the necessity of setting up a new technical block as well as the need for additional space so that international flights could be started from Patna.

“AAI has kept the request of a private operator to launch a Patna-Kathmandu flight pending as the existing terminal building does not have space for setting up separate counters to handle the requirements of an international flight,” said a source.

As far as the existing terminal building is concerned, sources said it was put in service in 1988 and some renovation work was carried out from time to time to meet the pressing needs.

“Given the space constraint, there is virtually no scope for renovation now. That is why AAI intends to set up a new terminal building as the passenger flow has recorded a phenomenal growth in the past few years and this trend is likely to continue in the future as well,” said the source.

He also said that since setting up the new airport, as proposed, would take at least four to five years after the land is handed over to the AAI, it would be necessary to have a terminal building to handle the ever-increasing flow of passengers.

The state government, however, has not taken any decision as yet on the AAI request for land.

“Such decisions cannot be taken in haste. One needs to look into all aspects before taking any decision to shift institutions as requested by the AAI,” cabinet coordination department principal secretary Ravikant told The Telegraph. The functioning of the state civil aviation department comes under cabinet co-ordination.

Asked about the government stand on providing 4,800 acres of land at Silao (Nalanda) for setting up the new airport as suggested by the AAI, Ravikant said, “The AAI proposal is being looked into as it talks of a very huge chunk of land.”

The need for setting up an alternative airport is of prime importance as the existing facility at Patna has been categorised as one of the most dangerous in the country by the directorate-general of civil aviation due to the shorter runaway length and obstacles on the approach funnel.

Against the ideal runway length of 9,000 ft for landing of bigger aircraft, the runway length of the existing airport is just 7,500 ft. Obstacles on the approach funnel, however, allow use of just 5,500 ft of runway when landing from the western side (runway 07) and 5,970 ft of it when landing from the eastern side (runway 25). The short runway has been termed not safe for landing of bigger aircraft such as Boeing and Airbus.