New look Ranchi Airport soon

The airport will not only get an additional 500 acres, which the government has assured to provide on the western side near Khunti Road, but an international look as well. The Birsa Munda Airport, which will have a new “massive” integrated terminal for scheduled national and international flights, will be equipped to handle around 400 passengers at a time.

The runway, to be extended by 3,500 ft to 12,500 ft, will become the longest in eastern India. A new apron, cargo complex, taxi track, convention centre, hotel and a host of other facilities are also in the pipeline. The airport currently occupies 546.25 acres, of which 430 acres are walled. Former civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy had announced Rs 50 crore for the expansion project in 2003. Sources, however, said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is ready with a plan to upgrade Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport at a price cost several times higher than what Rudy had earlier announced. Only the integrated building of the airport will be of over Rs 100 crore, sources said. The cost of the apron, taxi track and convention centre will also run into several crores, the sources said. The AAI will table its plan for Ranchi in the next board meeting, likely to be held this very month, sources said. Civil aviation secretary A.K. Pandey said they would disclose the plans later, but confirmed that there was a massive expansion plan for the airport. “We are trying to set up new airports in the state,” he said.

Airport station director A.V. Krishna said they would enter into an agreement with the government, which would provide 500 acres. The expansion will be done by the AAI, he said. “We cannot handle international flights now due to shortage of space, but the new terminal will allow us to have many more facilities. Besides having facilities on a par with the best airports of the country, space will be earmarked near the new terminal for a metro station that is bound to come to Ranchi in future,” Krishna said. Besides, there will be space so that railway tracks from Hatia station can be extended to somewhere close to the new building, he added. The existing terminal will be used for charter flights and other non-scheduled flights, whose numbers are expected to increase manifold with more private aircraft being operated, Krishna said. “We can handle 200 passengers at a time now, but the capacity will be doubled in the new terminal. The plan is ready and will be placed in the next board meeting of AAI,” Krishna said.

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