No plan to name Bihta Airport after Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, Civil Aviation Minister

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday informed the Lok Sabha that there is no plan in place to name the under-construction Bihta Airport after Swami Sahajanand Saraswati.

"The Union government has not received any proposal from the state government to name Bihta Airport after Swami Sahajanand Saraswati," Puri said in a written reply.

"As a general practice, requests for naming or renaming of airports are considered based on the recommendations of the concerned state government, supported by a resolution passed in the respective State Legislative Assembly," Puri explained.

There have been demands of naming the airport after the nationalist leader and saint.

"The provisional date of the completion of the project is September 2022. The timeline for flight operations depends upon many factors such as availability of mandatory clearances, financial closure etc, by the airport developer, traffic demand and commercial viability of the airlines," he said in his reply to another question.

Bihar government has handed over 108 acres of land to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for development of New Civil Enclave at Bihta. The Airports body has appointed a project management consultant for terminal building design and city side development.