Mumbai: Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has sought the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s intervention for early resolution of a slew of issues that are impacting the implementation of various projects pertaining to aviation sector in Maharashtra.
In a letter, Scindia said AAI has projected land requirements of 234.21 acres at Akola airport for development of basic strip and additional infrastructure. Out of this, only 149.95 acres has been handed over to AAI. Remaining 84.26 acres is yet to be handed over. Nearly 182 acres of land is required at Aurangabad airport for runway extension and parallel taxi track for making it suitable for operation of Code 'E' type of aircraft.
Scindia said 47.60 acres of land is required at Gondia airport for diversion of village road and city side development. Around 64 acres of land is required at Kolhapur airport for runway extension and installation of approach lights for development of airport for operation of AB-320 type of aircraft.
The minister informed that an amount of Rs 95 crore has been allocated for development of Amravati and Ratnagiri airports. The airports need to be developed by the State Government for commencing RCS–UDAN operations. ‘’Removal of chimney at Solapur may be considered at the earliest, so as to connect Solapur airport under RCS–UDAN,’’ he said.
According to Scindia, an amount of Rs 12.02 crore is outstanding on part of the State Government as VGF share for Regional Air Connectivity Fund Trust (RACFT).
‘’State Government may give their consent to provide 100% VGF support for International UDAN operations on Pune – Dubai, Pune – Bangkok, Pune– Male, Pune – Singapore, Pune – Kathmandu and Pune – Kuala Lumpur routes. On receipt of the consent of State Government for 100% VGF support, routes will be put for bidding by the airlines,’’ said Scindia.
