The old airfield was built around 1942, as an ancillary runway for other airfields in the vicinity that were being built around India’s eastern frontier as part of the war effort. It was one of the airfields used by Allied forces to repel the advancing Japanese troops and to maintain transport links with China. As the Japanese forces came to control shipping in the China Sea, seaborne supply routes to China were cut and the difficult, 500 km route over the Himalayas was increasingly used. The airfield was abandoned after the war. In June 2017, the technical team of the AAI scouted the region for a suitable location for an airport for Jamshedpur and visited Chakulia and Dhalbhumgarh. After considering all factors, the team chose the Dhalbhumgarh site for the airport. The airport was to have 3 kilometre runway. AAI had planned to invest Rs. 300 crores for the new airport and the state was to provide 300 acres of land for the project. In 2017, the Defence ministry had staked its claim over more than half of the airport project land that was owned by the government. However, in September 2018, the Defence Ministry gave clearance to the Civil Aviation Ministry for the construction of the proposed airport in September 2018. Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Raghubar Das, performed the ground breaking ceremony of the airport project on 24 January 2019 and the Government signed the MoU with AAI on the same day. Under the MoU, a joint venture company would be set up to construct the airport in which AAI would have a 51 percent stake while the State Government would own the remaining. According to the memorandum, AAI would invest Rs. 100 crores to construct the airport while the State would provide the 240 acres of land required for the project. The airport would be designed to operate ATR-72 type of aircraft in the first phase. An additional 545 acres would be acquired to increase the runway length to operate larger aircraft in later phases. The project site is spread across 240 acres and the airport will cost 100 Crore. The terminal building, measuring 15,000 square feet, will have six check-in counters, will be able to handle 150 passengers. The proposed runway will be 2,179-meters long and 30-meter wide and will be expanded to 4,400 meters in second phase.
