looking at the increasing flow of passengers at Birsa Munda Airport (BMA), authorities are making sincere efforts to improve passenger amenities besides expanding the infrastructure so that people do not have to face problems while commuting through it. Remarkably, BMA in Ranchi has becomes Country’s fastest growing Airport after recording a growth of around 70 per cent increase in passenger trips during the last three years.
“Infrastructure development at BMA is being done at war footage to meet International standards under which two aprons are being constructed to accommodate more flights at the airport which will be completed within 2-3 months,” said Terminal Manager Manoj Singh. In addition to that, entry and exit gate is also being separated for smooth movement of passengers without any hassle for them, he added.
Singh further added that a proposal for construction of two new aerobridge has also been sent to the Airports Authority of India for approval and was yet to be received. Aerobridge is an enclosed, movable connector which extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, allowing passengers to board and disembark without having to go outside.
“To provide more parking spaces for the passengers, a survey has also been conducted by the BIT Mesra which is still under consideration,” said Singh. There is a plan to expand the parking lot up to the old parking lot to accommodate more vehicles at the Airport, he added.
Complaint of parking problem is made by the passengers several times as the passenger flow has increased three times after the number of flights rose to 28 as compared to 11 in 2014. Interestingly, no any major airport in the Country has witnessed such a drastic growth during these three years as number of passenger trips from Ranchi was recorded to be 18 lakh this year as compared to 6.5 lakh in 2014-15.
Sources also revealed that Spice Airways has been exploring the possibilities to operate from Ranchi also while Jet Airways is also trying to resume services from BMA.
Number of flights is likely to increase further as the airport authorities have written to different airlines like Odisha and Deccan Airlines to start flights from Ranchi to different airlines after the airport got functional round the clock from April last year.
Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar has also written to Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha demanding a Ranchi - Raipur flight for the convenience of large number of people commuting between the two cities.
