New Delhi/Patna, Sept. 16: The international airport at Gaya could become the main aviation hub of Bihar if the Centre agrees to fast-track the widening of the highway linking the state capital to the tourist centre.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar today told road transport and highways minister C.P. Joshi about his government’s plans to turn the facility at Gaya into the state’s main airport and pressed for widening of the highway under the Buddhist circuit.

Shifting the Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport from Patna due to inadequate length of its runway has been on the cards for a long time but it is for the first time that plans about turning Gaya into the state’s main airport has come to light.

Nitish made this disclosure during a meeting with Joshi in New Delhi to take up different road projects in Bihar, sources said. Nitish argued that the present travel time of two-and-a-half hours to cover the 110km distance between Patna and Gaya airport would be reduced by an hour once the highway is four-laned.

“The length of Patna airport’s runway is inadequate and there is no scope to increase it. Therefore we plan to make Gaya the main airport of the state. Four-laning of the Patna-Gaya highway is therefore needed to reduce travel time,” Nitish was quoted as having told Joshi.

However, officials questioned the move to have the main airport so far away from the state capital. “It is not feasible. While it is true that some airports in major cities around the world are located quite a distance away, the travel time there isn’t much owing to the superior infrastructure in place,” said a central bureaucrat, who did not wish to be named.

The Patna airport is considered one of the most dangerous in the country due to locational problems which, on the one hand, do not allow for expansion and, on the other, prevent full use of even the existing runway.

The short runway is considered not safe for the landing of bigger aircraft such as Boeing and Airbus.

Keeping this fact in mind, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had asked the state government to provide land for developing an alternative airport. The process was expedited after AAI chairman V.P. Agrawal visited Bihar in August 2009 and met Nitish.

This meeting was followed by a visit of a team of AAI experts in October 2009 for inspecting the prospective sites for developing a new airport. The team visited Bihta, Punpun and Nalanda.

In its report, the AAI team gave first priority to develop Bihta Air Base of the Indian Air Force as an alternative airport, around 40km west of Patna. It gave second preference to Nalanda, around 80km southeast of Patna, as a prospective site, but rejected Punpun, saying it was a low-lying area.

In response to the AAI report, the government in February this year said it would not be possible to provide land at Bihta to AAI as it would lead to displacement of thousands of families. The government instead offered to provide 1,200 acres of land at Nalanda for the proposed airport.

In response, the AAI sent a letter stating that it required 4,800 acres of land at Nalanda for developing the airport. Since then nothing has moved on this front.

At the meeting with Joshi today, Nitish took up the matter relating to four-laning of NH-28 between Muzaffarpur-Barauni and NH-31 between Khagaria-Purnea. He urged Joshi to postpone the tender for two-laning of the two stretches and invite fresh bids for four-laning as this was the need of the hour due to heavy traffic.

Earlier, Nitish met rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and thanked him for accepting Bihar’s demand for cancelling 409 projects awarded to central agencies under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna. These projects will now be executed by the state.