PATNA, July 10 -- An IndiGo Airlines flight (6E 5009) from Patna to Delhi, carrying 175 passengers and crew, suffered a bird hit immediately after take off from the Jay Prakash Narayan International airport here on Wednesday morning. "All passengers are safe and the aircraft returned safely after suffering a bird strike shortly after take off," said Krishan Mohan Nehra, director Patna airport. The aircraft had taken off from Patna at 8.42am when it suffered the bird strike and returned immediately thereafter. "One dead bird in pieces was found on Runway 07 during inspection. The same was communicated to the pilots of the aircraft through the approach control unit. The pilots requested to come back to Patna airport due to vibration in one engine. A local standby was declared and the aircraft was given priority landing at 09.03am," said Nehra. "We are making alternate options for the passengers, as the aircraft has been grounded," said an airlines official, requesting anonymity. Shops selling meat in the open around the Patna airport attract birds. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has regularly flagged the problem of avian activity near the airport to the state government due to such shops. "It has come to our notice that fish is being sold in the open temporarily for 2-3 hours in the morning along the road near the Officers' Enclave in Gardanibagh. We have taken up the issue with the civic authorities and asked them to ban such sale and also provide alternate space to the vendors," said Chandrashekhar Singh, Patna's divisional commissioner, who is also chairman of the airport environment management committee. "We have been able to curb such sale of fish and meat in the open in Phulwarisharif area," said Singh. The divisional commissioner said the garbage transfer station at Yarpur was also under construction and likely to be completed by the end of this month. "The civic authorities should be able to shift the existing garbage yard at Gardanibagh to Yarpur before August 15," added Singh. The AAI had expressed serious concern over the presence of shops selling meat in the open around the vicinity of the airport during the last meeting of the airport environment management committee on June 16. It was then decided to eliminate the source of attraction of birds by shifting the existing garbage yard at Gardanibagh to Yarpur and also covering with shed the yard used for parking municipal vehicles by August 15, said an official who attended the meeting. AAI had also raised its concern over the accumulation and open segregation of garbage and waterlogging near the southern boundary wall of the airport. The railway authorities, who were also present during the meeting, said drainage from adjacent localities had to be planned to avoid water logging. Singh had tasked the Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Coporation Ltd (BUIDCL) to make alternate arrangement for drainage. The Patna airport is among the 11 most critical airports in India given the multiple obstructions and its short runway. The Bihar government has requested the Centre to send a multidisciplinary team to assess the obstructions and suggest remedial measures. Bihar chief secretary Amrit Lal Meena had in June written to the secretary, ministry of civil aviation in this regard. The Centre was yet to communicate to the state on its request for the multi-disciplinary team....