Patna, May 27 -- A missing staircase at the newly constructed terminal building of the Jay Prakash Narayan International airport in Patna was built on May 23, after the Airports Authority of India took down a wall separating the international and domestic departure lounges, for better passenger access, officials aware of the matter said. The terminal is scheduled for inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 29. The design flaw was noticed during an inspection - routine procedure before the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issues clearance for operations to start - and flagged to Delhi-based Sikka Associate Architects (SAA), who designed the new terminal, an official said requesting anonymity. The terminal was so designed that passengers could access the base and mezzanine floors of the domestic departure lounge only through eight lifts and two sets of escalators in the security hold area. Such a design would not only pose access difficulties, officials said that in case emergencies the flaw could lead to chaos. Two revised design plans were sent to accommodate a staircase in the domestic SHA from the exterior side of the building, the official cited above said. AAI officials, including chairman Vipin Kumar and member (planning) Anil Gupta, did not respond to HT's requests for comment. The architect firm, meanwhile, said the design flaw has been fixed. "There was an access issue earlier to the staircase in the domestic departure SHA. We resolved it last Friday (May 23) by removing a partition internally, which now provides access to two separate staircases in the SHA. The domestic side circulation issue of accessibility through staircase in SHA has been resolved," said Ashwani Kumar, project director of the Sikka Associate Architects....