Gaya: Air India is looking beyond its domestic flight operations to Delhi, Varanasi and Calcutta from Gaya airport. It will soon fly to the international shores of Bangkok, Colombo and Yangon.

A Bangkok-Bhubaneswar-Gaya flight is also in the offing from the second week of December twice a week but the frequency may be increased depending on the passenger occupancy.

A meeting of the airport's advisory committee was held at Gaya airport on Monday, where BJP MP from Gaya Hari Manjhi was requested to present in Parliament the proposal of starting domestic air services from Gaya airport to important cities and religious places in India.

"Spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists Dalai Lama will arrive in Bodhgaya on December 26 to stay for almost 50 days during which the footfall is likely to increase. If flight operations from Gaya airport increase, it will boost tourism and also raise revenue," said Suresh Singh, a member of the Gaya airport advisory committee.

Now, Thai Smile Airways operates flights from Bangkok to Gaya twice a week.

Sources said the decision to start the Air India flight for Bhubaneswar and Bangkok was taken at a meeting held recently in Calcutta, where officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Air India were present. Now, Air India operates weekly Delhi-Gaya-Yangon and Calcutta-Gaya-Yangon flights and a daily Delhi-Gaya-Varanasi-Delhi flight.

Airlines of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Myanmar also operate during tourist season between October and March. Mihin Lanka operates between Gaya and Colombo, Thai Airways between Gaya and Bangkok, Druk Air between Gaya and Paro and Myanmar Airways between Gaya and Mandalay.

The meeting at Gaya airport also discussed issues like removal of encroachment from airport land, its acquisition and construction of boundary wall.

A committee at the local level headed by the MP will be formed to look into the abovementioned issues. The meeting resolved the inclusion of some local residents.

Some other issues that were discussed at the meeting included setting up of a cargo terminal, beautification of the main entrance of the airport, setting up of ground-mounted solar power plant on the airport campus and more.

MP Hari Manjhi, Gaya district magistrate Kumar Ravi, Gaya airport director Dilip Kumar, airport advisory committee members Suresh Singh, Sanjay Kumar Singh and others took part in the meeting.