Patna airport’s operating licence could be renewed shortly, provided the director-general of civil aviation (DGCA) is satisfied with its safety measures.

The city airport officials are likely to send a fresh application within a fortnight to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) headquarters in New Delhi for the licence. It would comprise the details sought by a DGCA team that visited the airport last week. The AAI headquarters, in turn, would forward it to the DGCA within a week. If things go according to the plan, the DGCA would take a month’s time to issue the licence.

Manohar Lal Lehkra, the eastern regional director of the AAI, told The Telegraph: “I have asked the Patna airport director to send a fresh report comprising the required details within a week. If the DGCA is satisfied on most of the conditions, it can issue the operating license in another month,” said Lehkra.

He said: “The DGCA team was content with most of the steps taken for removal of obstacles in the aircraft approach funnel of the Patna airport. But it has asked the airport authority to provide certain details related to runway and operation of aircraft. For instance, it has sought fresh calculations based on which the precision approach path indicator (PAPI) lights have been installed along the runway at the airport.”

PAPI is a visual aid that helps a pilot acquire and maintain the correct approach (in the vertical plane) to an airport.

Besides, the DGCA team has asked the AAI, Patna, to submit a standard operating procedure regarding operations of aircraft with shorter runway strip, a kind of buffer zone on the either side of the runway for safety of planes while landing or take- off.

The DGCA had withheld the issuance of operating license for the city airport on June 30 last year because of 101 obstacles along the airport’s landing approach funnel. The AAI later issued a notice to airmen (Notam) on August 3, revising the length of the runways. The effective date of the revised runway length was postponed on August 11, August 27, September 17, and October 22. The final extension came on November 28, wherein the AAI said the runway restrictions for the Patna airport would not come into effect till further order.