A further 15 acres to be added to exisiting space
Mumbai : Considering the Pune airport’s need for more space to increase its limit by 15 acres, a successful and important approval has been acquired from the Defence Ministry for the extension of the airport, as was announced today in Pune by Minister of Union Road Transport, Highways and Ship Construction Nitin Gadkari. Earlier in the day, he had convened a meeting on the topic of increasing the limit of Pune airport, a process which has been delayed for almost the last 15 years now.
The meeting was conducted mainly between Central Forest and Environment Minister of State (Independent Charge) Prakash Javadekar, Guardian Minster of Pune Girish Bapat, MPs Anil Shirole and Amar Sable, the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the District Commissioner, as well as Pune MLAs, the Pune airport authority and Air Corps officers.
After the meeting, a review of the topics discussed was revealed by Gadkari in a press meet held at Lohegaon Airport. Gadkari added that Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar would himself sign all the documents regarding the same. Besides, Gadkari, too, overviewed of six-seven acres of land attached to that area and said that he will try to incorporate that, too, for the airport.
Gadakri pointed out that this 15-acre plot of land will also prove to be inadequate in the next eight to 10 years, and so obtaining this land is not a permanent solution. Pune will need one more airport in the coming years, he said.
But this is entirely a state government topic, so in the next eight to 10 years, the state government needs to take a decision on making the new airport, Gadkari said. This topic will be discussed further with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the next 15 days, and Bapat will pursue the subject.
For the maximum utilisation of the airport land, Gadkari said that for other facilities, an underground parking space should be made so that the airport space can be used for increasing the facilities needed at the airport.
Besides, a study on the airport’s surrounding space of 100 metres will be conducted by the District Commissioner of Pune and be submitted soon.
Also, talks are on to see whether fighter aircraft timings can be changed at the airport or not, Gadkari concluded.
