Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, Shri Kaushal Kishore, has informed that The Government of India launched the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) on 25 June 2015. 100 Smart cities have been selected through 4 rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018. 4 cities of Bihar, i.e., Bhagalpur, Bihar Sharif, Muzaffarpur & Patna have been selected for development as Smart Cities.
The objective of SCM is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life, clean and sustainable environment to their citizens through application of smart solutions. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create replicable models which will act as lighthouses for other areas in the same city/other aspiring cities. The Smart City Proposal (SCP) of each city, including those in Bihar, has been prepared through extensive citizen engagement. Since the needs and aspirations of citizens in different cities are different, the priorities and projects contained in such SCPs vary from city to city. Ensuring connectivity through airports was not envisaged as a mandatory objective under SCM.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has informed that Government of India has formulated a Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008 which provides guidelines, procedure and conditions for establishment of new Greenfield Airports in the country. As per GFA Policy, an airport developer or the respective State Government willing to establish an airport is required to send a proposal to MoCA in the prescribed format available at www.civilaviation.gov.in.
There is a 2-stage process for approval of the proposal i.e. `Site Clearance’ followed by `In-Principle’ approval. In accordance with this Policy, MoCA receives proposals from the State Governments or airport developers, from time to time, for establishment of airports. After due examination, the approval for development of a new Greenfield Airport is granted. The responsibility for project implementation such as land acquisition, project funding, obtaining other mandatory clearances, etc. lies with the concerned airport developer or the State Government, as the case may be. Presently, there are 140 Operational Airports in the country out of which three are in Bihar, viz. Gaya, Patna and Darbhanga Airport.