Civil aviation secretary VK Singh (extreme left) exchanges files on the Deoghar project with AAI chairman VP Agrawal (extreme right) in the presence of chief minister Arjun Munda, his deputy Hemant Soren and state steering committee chairman Shibu Soren in Ranchi on Thursday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Feb. 16: Jharkhand today signed an agreement with Airports Authority of India (AAI) — handing over Deoghar airport for development so that commercial operations can start in two-three years, even as AAI chairman V.K. Agrawal said a revamped Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi would start offering extended services from June.

“I visited Ranchi airport today. The Rs 150-crore modernisation-cum-expansion that involves setting up of a longer runway and facilities to accommodate 700 passengers at a time in the new terminal building will be in place by June,” Agrawal told The Telegraph on the sidelines of signing the MoU.

He added that the new facilities would allow Ranchi to handle international flights and more traffic in the near future.

Today’s MoU signing ceremony was attended by chief minister Arjun Munda, Dumka MP and chairman of state co-ordination committee Shibu Soren, Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, deputy chief minister Hemant Soren, chief secretary S.K. Choudhary, chief minister’s principal secretary D.K. Tiwary, AAI’s director (planning) S. Raheja, and state civil aviation department’s flight operations in-charge Captain S.P. Sinha, among others.

The Deoghar project is pegged at about Rs 350 crore, of which the state will provide Rs 50 crore and the rest will be given as grant by the Planning Commission.

The existing facilities at Deoghar — including a 3km-long runway — is in poor shape and land available at the site is 53.71 acres.

The government has promised AAI that it would acquire another 675 acres for the project at the earliest so that the work can start as soon as possible.

The government of Jharkhand is expected to spend another Rs 90 crore in meeting expenses of land acquisition, making arrangements for water, electricity etc. The state will not bear any recurring expenditure on the project.

Speaking on the occasion, chief minister Arjun Munda said the project would benefit Santhal Pargana region. “Creating infrastructure, whether it is road, rail or air, is priority of the government through different models. While today is important as the state has made a swift stride in setting up another airport, on February 14, the state signed an MoU with the railways for equal cost sharing on ongoing railway projects,” said Munda.

Godda MP Dubey explained the tourism potential of the state, saying that Deoghar, Parasnath hills, Basukinath and Tarapeeth (in Bengal) are close to the proposed airport, while chief secretary Choudhary maintained it would give a big boost to pilgrimage tourism in the state.

Agrawal said to begin with, AAI aims to execute the Deoghar project in such a way that landing and take-off facilities for smaller aircraft like ATR-72 and A321 are in place.