Source – dailypioneer.com
The Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi on Tuesday opened a dedicated lane for pick-and-drop vehicles, which passengers can use free of cost and avoid additional parking charges, Airport Director Vinod Sharma said. Several passengers, including politicians, businessmen and social activists, had raised objection to the additional parking charge for private vehicles that pick and drop passengers at the airport.
The decision of including a free pick-and-drop lane for vehicles entering the airport was taken at a meeting of the Airport Advisory Committee (AAC) recently.
While airport officials had said that there would be an upper limit on the duration for which pick-and-drop vehicles can use the parking without being charged, Sharma on Tuesday said that there was no upper limit as such but the vehicles should not stay parked in the lane as it would disrupt the traffic.
“The idea behind the dedicated lane is to provide passengers the option to get out of the airport and hop in their car without having to pay extra money. Same is applicable for passengers who board their flights from Ranchi. They can get down and allow the vehicle to leave the airport premises,” Sharma said.
The AAC meeting, which took the decision was presided over by Ranchi MP Sanjay Seth and attended by Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar, who has been an active member of the committee. Hatia legislator Navin Jaiswal also attended the meeting.
Besides taking the decision of relieving pick-and-drop vehicles from parking charges, the AAC also decided to use funds from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) treasury of the airport to rehabilitate the villagers who had lost land due to construction and expansion of the airport and beautify the villages surrounding the airport.
The Birsa Munda Airport is fast growing in terms of connectivity with other cities. The largest airport in Jharkhand already has 30 flights connecting Ranchi to important cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The airport also has an international bay, but is yet to get any international flights. The increasing passenger traffic in Ranchi demands for better facilities and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is consistently working on finding new ways to enhance the travel experience of passengers, said airport officials.
Meanwhile, the airport authorities here have also floated tenders for restaurants and bar in the airport premises. Besides, several shops and showrooms have come up in the airport terminals in order to provide entertainment, refreshment and quality shopping experience to passengers here.