New Delhi: Experts from the Indian aviation sector joined by those from the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Friday discussed the ways to help Bihar cash in on the opportunities in airports infrastructure and helicopter services.
They felt that the aviation sector could play a pivotal role in facilitating regional connectivity, identify the new business segments and attract investment in areas of agri-business and tourism.
The experts on aviation sector were speaking at a conference on promotion of civil aviation sector in Bihar, which was organized in New Delhi by the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation in collaboration with Government of Bihar and FICCI.
The conference was moderated by Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Civil Aviation. Presentations on the promotion of Civil Aviation in the state of Bihar were made by S Sidharth, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister of Bihar and Sandeep Pondrik, Principal Secretary, Government of Bihar.
Prashant Ranjan, Director, Ministry of Tourism, Manoj Mehta, Director, FICCI, Palka Sahni, Resident Commissioner, Government of Bihar and Ajay Yadav, Private Secretary to Minister of Civil Aviation were also present in the meeting.
A presentation on Industry perspective was done by Dhruv Rebbapragada, Regional Director, Safety, and member management board of Airbus India & South Asia.
S Sidharth, who also holds the charge of Civil Aviation Department of Bihar Government, said civil aviation was a key infrastructure sector that facilitates the growth of the business, and seamless flow of investment, trade, and tourism, with significant multiplier effects across the economy. “Over a third of world trade by value is delivered by air and about half of international tourism is facilitated by air links,” he added.
Bihar is one of the progressive states in India and it has immense growth potential. In recent years states civil aviation sector has seen exponential growth in terms of air passengers, airport infrastructure, etc., and holds the key to link the state to the other states of the country while it also taking ahead state’s tourism, trade, and commerce with the rest of the world.
The state has benefited immensely through regular commercial operation of air services from Darbhanga airport since 2020. Darbhanga airport has direct flight connectivity with Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bangalore while Patna is now connected to Amritsar, Varanasi and Prayagraj under UDAN-2.0 scheme.
