Smart Cities: On June 25, 2015, the Indian government announced the Smart Cities Mission (SCM). From January 2016 to June 2018, 100 smart cities were chosen following four rounds of competition. Bihar’s four cities, Bhagalpur, Bihar Sharif, Muzaffarpur, and Patna, have been chosen to be developed as Smart Cities.
Four cities of Bihar in the Smart cities project
The goal of SCM is to encourage cities that use smart solutions to offer fundamental infrastructure, a decent quality of life, and a clean and sustainable environment for their residents. The objective is to look at compact places and construct reproducible models that will work as lighthouses for other areas in the same city/other aspiring cities, with a focus on sustainable and inclusive development. Each city’s Smart City Proposal (SCP), including those in Bihar, was developed after substantial citizen input. Because people’s needs and aspirations differ from city to city, the priorities and projects included in such SCPs varies as well. Under SCM, ensuring airport connectivity was not envisioned as an essential goal.
The Government of India has created a Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008, which offers guidelines, methods, and criteria for the creation of new Greenfield Airports in the country, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). According to GFA Policy, any airport developer or state government interested in establishing an airport must submit a proposal to MoCA in the prescribed format, which can be found at www.civilaviation.gov.in.
The proposal must go through two stages of clearance: ‘Site Clearance’ and ‘In-Principle’ approval. MoCA receives applications for the establishment of airports from state governments or airport developers on a regular basis, in accordance with this Policy. The approval for the establishment of a new Greenfield Airport is granted after a thorough study. The concerned airport developer or the State Government, as the case may be, is responsible for project implementation, including land acquisition, project funding, and getting any required permits. There are currently 140 operational airports in the country, with three in Bihar, namely Gaya, Patna, and Darbhanga.