Darbhanga Airport News: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu will lay the foundation stone for civil enclave at Darbhanga Airbase today. Indian Air Force owns the airbase and the Airport Authority of India will develop the new terminal. The new airport terminal is expected to boost the connectivity to the region and also help in its economic growth. The airport terminal will have flights under PM Narendra Modi's ambitious Regional Connectivity Scheme - Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN).

Ministry of Defence has already granted its permission in October for construction of a temporary civil enclave at the airfield.

Below are the key features of the airport:

1. Terminal area of 15000 square feet

2. Six check-in counters

3. Peak hour capacity of 100 passengers

4. Apron: 2

As far as the sustainability features are concerned, the airport terminal will have LED lights, a green belt to act as a noise barrier and low VOC.

#AAI is boosting Bihar's Aviation Infra by developing new civil enclave at Darbhanga Airport. The Foundation stone will be laid tomorrow by Shri @NitishKumar & HMCA Shri @sureshpprabhu in the august presence of MoSCA Shri @jayantsinha, Shri @ramkripalmp & other dignitaries. pic.twitter.com/UaYl5szZbT — Airports Authority of India (@AAI_Official) December 23, 2018

Flights under UDAN from the Darbhanga airport will connect to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The UDAN scheme has given a much-needed boost to the regional connectivity. Since the launch of UDAN, as many as 56 airports and 31 helicopters had been awarded. The initial bidding for the routes under UDAN 3.0 has already been done and counter bidding is under process. Joint Secretary in Ministry of Civil Aviation Udha Padhee said that 111 initial proposals have already been placed for counter bidding under UDAN 3.0

The scheme has also contributed to keeping India world's fastest growing civil aviation market with an annual growth of 20 per cent. India, at present, has 101 operational airports. As per government data, India witnessed over 12 crore domestic passengers in 2018. The number of aircraft have also increased to 587 from 395 in the last four years.

The flight operations from Darbhanga airport is expected to start from July 2019.