Birsa Munda Airport

Front view of the airport's terminal

Interior of the terminal

View of the terminal from the apron

The new integrated passenger terminal building at the airport was inaugurated by the then civil aviation minister Ajit Singh on 24 March 2013.[9]

The terminal building spreads over 19,600 square metres (0.0196 km²) and was constructed at a cost of ₹138 crore (equivalent to ₹235 crore or US$29 million in 2023). It has four aerobridges and six escalators imported from China, Germany and Singapore. The terminal has a capacity to handle 500 domestic and 200 international passengers at a time.[10]

In March 2013, the tax on aviation turbine fuel sold at the airport was reduced from 20% to 4% to attract more airlines to the city. Overnight parking of aircraft at the airport was made free-of-charge to encourage airlines to schedule their aircraft to remain overnight, so that there may be more early-morning flights to the metro cities.[11] The Airports Authority of India also constructed three more parking bays, thereby making it the first tier-II airport in India to have eight aircraft parking bays.[12][13][14] Two new aerobridges were added to the terminal[14][15] and the runway was extended as well.[16][17]

A new cargo terminal was inaugurated in February 2017 by the then Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Raghubar Das. The terminal can handle 50 metric tonnes (mT) of cargo everyday and is equipped with explosive trace detection equipment, cargo X-ray machines, hardware security machines, and CCTV cameras.[18][19]

Though footfall of the passengers have gone up over the years, the airport is yet acquire an international tag for want of additional infrastructure like extended runway, runway strip extension, extra parking bays, an isolation bay, spacious terminal building and more aerobridges to qualify as international airport. Therefore signing of a long-pending Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Airport Authority of India & Jharkhand Government for transfer of 303.62 acre land taken place on 27 June 2022.

As per the MoU, a total of 303.62 acres of land will be transferred to the AAI by the State Government, of which 301.12 acres will be transferred in the first phase. Of the 301.12 acres, which has been acquired by the Government, 273.78 acres of land will be made available on lease for 30 years at the rate of Rs 1.00 per annum. The remaining 27.34 acres of land will be provided free of cost on the basis of ownership to replace it with 27.31 acres of land of the army.[20]

Deputy Secretary, Civil Aviation Division, Government of Jharkhand, Akhilesh Kumar Sinha & Airport Director, Birsa Munda Airport, KL Agrawal exchanged the signed deal for land transfer.

AAI officials said that a new terminal building, isolation bay, control tower, fire station, etc. will also be built on the additional land apart from expanding the runway to 3,655 metres from the existing 2,748 metres and widening the runway strip to 60 metres from the existing 45 metres. The necessary navigational aids, visual aids and ground lighting facilities will be upgraded for the operation of wide-body aircraft. Additional land near the airstrip would allow belly landing of aircraft in emergency situation.

Officials of the Civil Aviation Department said that the State Government would also expand its hangar on the Birsa Munda airport campus to facilitate parking of extra planes and helicopters.

Officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI), Ranchi, said that the long-delayed plan of expansion of the airport got underway after the signing of agreement with the State Government on 27 June. “The agreement was due to be signed in 2008, but the issue lingered for long due to one pretext or the other,” said an officer.[21]