DGCA asks Bihar to upgrade flight safety at Patna airport

Patna,(BiharTimes): Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the Bihar government to take urgent measures to upgrade flight safety at the Jaya Prakash Narayan International Airport in Patna or else it would be allowed to operate only small aircraft, which can carry up to 70 passengers.

Disclosing this at a State Civil Aviation Ministers conference in New Delhi on Tuesday Civil Aviation Secretary K N Shrivastava said the aviation regulator wrote to the state government recently after a team of United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) visited the airport and expressed concern that it was in operation despite not getting a license from the DGCA.

An airport is allowed to function only after it gets a license. The licensing process was started in 2006. It requires DGCA to evaluate the existing facilities, equipment and all issues relating to air safety at an airport before assessing the application for an airport license.
There are currently 66 licensed airports in the country, apart from 20 more private airports and heli-ports