The state government’s order to suspend aircraft movement on the local airstrip has slammed the brakes on a Rs 1.32-crore runway repair project and a long-pending demand of converting it into an airport.
The closure decision, issued in June this year, came to light when water resources minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and the department principal secretary, Afzal Amanullah, could not use the airstrip on August 23.
The chartered plane carrying the duo, who were scheduled to visit the damaged embankments at Naugachia, had to land at Purnea, around 90km from Bhagalpur. From there they were driven down to Naugachia. Light chartered aircraft and helicopters carrying state ministers or senior state officials from Patna used the airstrip till before its closure.
The issue of turning the airstrip into a full-fledged airport had developed a rift between former civil aviation minister and BJP MP from Bhagalpur Shahnawaz Hussain and Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the state health minister and BJP MLA from Bhagalpur.
Earlier, Choubey had opposed the administration’s proposed move to evict residents from colonies surrounding the airstrip to facilitate upgrading the airstrip to an airport.
The rift between the two BJP stalwarts had widened so much that even chief minister Nitish Kumar, during his Seva Yatra here on June 1 this year, clearly mentioned that it was not possible to upgrade the airstrip to a full-fledged airport owing to the dense population in the vicinity. Both the leaders were not available for comment on the issue.
Sources said lack of proper maintenance had rendered the runway dangerous for landing and take-off of any aircraft. “Not only planes, we avoid any helicopter from landing owing to the damaged airstrip. Illegal trespassers from nearby colonies and stray cattle act as constraints too,” said a senior administrative official.
Not a single official was available for comment at the local office of the building construction department, the custodians of the airstrip.
District magistrate Prem Singh Meena was not unavailable for comment.
