The Centre is keen to build a new airport in Pune and is awaiting a Maharashtra government proposal for an alternative site for the project, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in an exclusive conversation with News18.com on Thursday.
Work on the new airport began in 2004 with sites near Talegaon Dabhade and Saswad being picked for it. Later, locations close to Chakan and Rajgurunagar were looked at. However, following resistance from villagers, the site was changed to Purandar tehsil in 2015. On December 26, 2016, thousands of people from six villages in the area blocked the Pune-Pandharpur Road for nearly two hours, in protest against the new international airport. After this, a revised proposal, with a location change, was sent to the Centre for approval. This was followed by a conditional nod from the defence ministry last year but that was cancelled a few days later.
Sharad Pawar, chief of the Nationalist Congress Party that is part of the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government, said recently that he would speak with the defence ministry to get approval for the site.
Pune MP and chairman of the airport advisory committee Girish Bapat said on Thursday that developing a new airport on the outskirts of the city will inconvenience the public even as he batted for an expansion of the existing airport at Lohegaon, which is of the Indian Air Force. Speaking to the media after a meeting at the Pune airport, the lawmaker said that by the end of the year, the expanded terminal building at the Pune airport will be ready to use and that will lead to doubling of its capacity.
“Several sites have been proposed for the development of the new airport for Pune, including Rajgurunagar, Purandar, and now Supe. We are not opposed to this or to even constructing two more airports. That will be a sign of progress. But as you go farther from Pune it will be inconvenient for Punekars,” said Bapat.
Airports Authority of India is currently constructing a new integrated terminal building in Pune of around 51,500 sqm and an annual capacity of 12 million passengers. The old terminal building area is 22300 sqm and capacity is 7 million passengers per annum.
After the completion of the ongoing project, the handling capacity will go up to 19 million passengers per year. The cost of the new building project is about Rs 475 crore.
Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the new building will also have five passenger boarding bridges, escalators, elevators, inline X-ray baggage handling system, city side canopy with a six-lane road, etc.
Speaking about the reasons behind the delay in the project, the union minister told News18.com that the work started in October 2018 but was slowed down due to congested work site as Pune airport is one of the busiest operational airports, encountering hard rock in the foundation (for about 4 to 6 months), unseasonal heavy monsoon in 2019 (for 4 months), Covid pandemic and related restrictions in movement of material and labour etc (for 6 to 8 months), etc.
In addition to this, the existing cargo facility falling in the alignment of the approach and parking area in front of the new building had to be relocated, said Scindia. The land allotted to HPCL and BPCL had to be vacated for construction utility services for the new building (it got vacated in February 2022), he added.
The work on the cargo infrastructure on 2.5 acres of land is likely to start in April, said Scindia, after the area is handed over by the ministry of defence.
The present physical progress of the building work is 65%, revealed the minister, and it is likely to be completed by March 2023.
During his brief visit to Pune on March 6, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted the significance of modern infrastructure and transport facilities for the city and the revamped Pune Airport would add to this vision under the PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan.
Scindia on Thursday met a delegation from Pune led by Sudhir Mehta, president of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) Pune, to discuss the extension work at the Lohegaon international airport as well as the demand for a civilian airport.
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https://twitter.com/sudhirmehtapune/status/1506901623469051904
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The developments come days after columnist and managing partner of Counselage India Suhel Seth in a News18 article pointed towards the apparent apathy towards citizen convenience at the Pune airport.
“It is tragic that Pune which is home to some of India’s most respected and admired companies, not to mention the innumerable academic institutions it boasts of, has been unable to push for a decent airport,” he wrote.
(With agency inputs)
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