Muzaffarpur: Muzaffarpur is likely to get air service soon as a five-day survey has started at Patahi Airport. A team of experts reached the airport on Tuesday to check if small planes can fly from here. This team includes senior mapping and survey specialists. The survey work will help the government decide the next steps.
The General Manager of ATM-Survey and Cartography, Sandip Mukhopadhyay, informed the Airports Authority of India in Patna about the plan. The District Magistrate, Subrata Kumar Sen, has asked Junior Engineer Sunil Kumar to help the survey team as the nodal officer. For safety, the local police have been told to provide an officer and scout during the work.
In the recent cabinet meeting, permission was given to start air services from this airport. An agreement has already been signed. During the survey, the team will check where the runway, parking, taxi-way and new building should be built. They will also make a map of tall buildings nearby so that planes can take off safely. A small storage room will also be set up for survey equipment.
At present, the plan is to run only small aircraft as the airport already has about 101 acres of land. Earlier, there was a plan to get 475 more acres for big airlines, but local people protested. Now, the focus is on starting small flights soon without any new land acquisition.
