Patna, Feb. 20: The move to set up a new airport near Bihar capital has hit yet another roadblock. The state government’s 1,200-acre land offer near Silao circle of Nalanda district, around 80km south-east of Patna, for the project is too little for the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The AAI recently sent a letter to the state government requesting the latter to reconsider its land proposal. Bosses in the state civil aviation department, which works under the cabinet co-ordination department, are likely to discuss the issue soon. The AAI letter, said a source in the state civil aviation department, has pointed out that it had asked for 4,800 acres of land for setting up the airport in Nalanda. “The AAI asked for the huge chunk of land because it has to take into account the air traffic movement for next 50 years while setting up a new airport,” added the source.

A source in the aviation sector said: “With the ball again being in the state government’s court, it would really be interesting to see how things unfold in days to come.”

Setting up an alternative airport is of prime importance because the existing airport at Patna has been categorised as one of the most dangerous airports of the country by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation because of short runway and obstacles in its approach funnel.

Against the ideal length of 9,000ft, the runway length of the existing airport is just 7,500ft. Obstacles in the approach funnel allow aircraft landing from western side (runway-07) use just 5,500ft of the runway. Planes landing from the eastern side (runway-25) can make use of 5,970ft. The talks of setting up an alternative airport has been in the air for quite some time but it got the real impetus after the visit of AAI chairman V.P. Agrawal to Bihar in August 2009. He had discussed the issue of setting up a new airport with chief minister Nitish Kumar then.