Garbage dumped near the old terminal building of Biju Patnaik Airport in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 12: Dumping of garbage near the old terminal building has become a bone of contention between the airport and the civic authorities with birds colliding with aircraft now a routine affair at Biju Patnaik Airport.

The city airport has so far registered six cases of birds colliding with aircraft this year. The latest case was registered on Friday around 9.30am when a New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Indigo flight was landing. Since it was a small bird, the impact caused no damage to the aircraft.

On Saturday, the city management group (CMG) met and discussed the incident. At the meeting, civic officials said while the airport officials were blaming the civic body regarding garbage being dumped around the airport, the airport authorities were themselves dumping garbage near the old terminal building.

A senior Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation official, who visited the site and took the photographs to justify their claims, told The Telegraph: “The garbage also includes food waste. We do not know the origin of the garbage but it is definitely generated by the airlines, food joints inside the airport and the eateries on their campus. The garbage dumping might be attracting birds near the aircraft or the approach path of the planes on the runway.”

Airport director Sharad Kumar refuted the corporation’s claims.

“They must be hinting at the dumping of construction material waste near the VVIP entry point of the old terminal, which was recently renovated for possible international operations,” he said.

Stating that airlines do not dump their food wastes at connecting airports and do it at destination airports such as Delhi or Mumbai, Kumar said: “We clean our garbage dumping site regularly.”

Speaking on subscribing to the express cleaning service of the civic body, Kumar said: “We have approached the civic body on several occasions but they never showed any interest. We are still interested to subscribe to their service.”

City health officer Chandrika Prasad Das said: “Even after Saturday’s meeting, the airport officials are yet to approach us for the cleaning service.”

Das also said the airport authorities could can take the help of organisations such as Chilika Development Authority to understand the behaviour of birds around the airport.

On June 26, passengers of a 70-seater New Delhi-bound flight from Port Blair via Bhubaneswar had a close shave when the aircraft hit a bird at 1,300 feet, 7km from the city. The aircraft did not suffer any damage. Two days later, the corporation demolished nearly 60 unauthorised meat, fish and chicken shops along the Stewart School-Delta Square road.