JOIN USNearly a week after two aircrafts suffered bird hits at Patna’s Jaya Prakash Narayan International Airport, the district administration here is mulling over a proposal to shut down slaughterhouses near the airport.
The move by the district administration comes in the wake of deep concern expressed by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) over numerous open slaughterhouses near Patna airport, which, in turn, attracts avian creatures and pose the serious risk to the aircraft and its passengers.
Chairing a meeting of aerodrome environment committee, Patna Divisional Commissioner Anand Kishore said he was determined to regulate the open slaughterhouses in the vicinity of the airport.
“I have asked the executive officer of the Phulwarisharif civic body to prepare a list of slaughterhouses so that it could be forwarded to the DM and the SP for its closure,” Kishore said.
Earlier on June 16, two aircraft – a Boeing 737 and an Airbus 320 — suffered bird hits within a short span of nine hours at the Patna airport.
Mercifully, around 350 passengers had a narrow escape as the bird hits were reported when the two aircraft (SpiceJet and Indigo) landed and were rolling on the tarmac.
The AAI had earlier identified 101 obstructions on either side of the runway which were dangerous for aircraft landing in Patna. The obstructions included 3,700 huge trees around the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, high-rise residential buildings, railway cabin, overhead traction lines, mobile towers, a temple, a tall light mast on a burial ground, advertisement hoardings, streetlights and electrical poles.
Besides, the AAI had identified the Secretariat clock tower — the trademark of Patna — as another obstacle which is 135 metres high against a permissible limit of 40 metres.
Apart from this, Patna still has one of the shortest runway in the country. Officially, the total length of the runway is 6,409 feet, but only 5,061 feet is in use.
The rich shrubbery on the eastern end and the railway cabin with its overhead traction lines on the south-western part reduces the effective runway length by 439 feet and 909 feet respectively.