New Delhi, 10th June 2022:

The Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India in collaboration with Government of Bihar and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry organised a Conference for promotion Civil Aviation Sector in the state of Bihar. The conference brought together experts from Indian Aviation Sector for strengthening the state’s opportunities in Airports infrastructure, Heli services, agro-business, and tourist destinations, increase regional connectivity, attract investment, and identify business.

The conference was moderated by Smt. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation. Presentations on the promotion of Civil Aviation in the state of Bihar was done by Dr S Sidharth, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister of Bihar and Shri Sandeep Pondrik, Principal Secretary, Government of Bihar. Shri Prashant Ranjan, Director, Ministry of Tourism, Shri Manoj Mehta, Director, FICCI, Palka Sahni, Resident Commissioner, Government of Bihar and Shri Ajay Yadav, Private Secretary to Minister of Civil Aviation were also present in the meeting.

A presentation on Industry perspective was done by Capt. Dhruv Rebbapragada, Regional Director, Safety, and member management board of Airbus India & South Asia.

Civil Aviation is 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.

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.