Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Priyanka Chaturvedi and Aaditya Thackeray have criticised the Centre for delaying the inauguration of Pune Airport's new terminal.
Chaturvedi, a Rajya Sabha MP, raised the issue in the upper house. “My question is about why Pune Airport’s new terminal building is not being inaugurated and made operational for passengers. And why it has been waiting for the last five months despite the work having been completed.”
In response, Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh stated that the work on the terminal is still ongoing and has not been completed yet. “It is not the fact that the new terminal building is waiting to be inaugurated for the last five months. In fact, the work is still going on and still, the new terminal building work has not been completed.”
Chaturvedi later took to X (formerly Twitter) and questioned, "As per Pune Airport authorities, the new terminal at Pune Airport has been ready for five months. Today, when asked a specific question on why the inauguration has been pending, the minister informed the house that the terminal isn’t complete. Who is lying and misleading?"
Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray took a dig at the BJP-led central government and said for them "elections are the criteria, not citizens". "The government refuses to inaugurate the new terminal building of the old Pune Airport, fully ready, for five months. On the other hand, to claim credit, they want to inaugurate an unfinished coastal road in Mumbai," he added.
Meanwhile, the official X handle of the Pune Airport replied to Chaturvedi's post and stated the process of installation of the inline baggage screening system is in progress. "Improvement in artworks, testing/dry run of various operational facilities along with Site Acceptance Test (SAT) of CCTV, IT infrastructure, and FIDS system is also underway and will be completed soon," the post further read.
Notably, when Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia recently inspected the new terminal, he said that the inauguration will be done in two or three weeks. "My responsibility was to complete the project which has happened now. The Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Ministers will discuss and decide about the inauguration,” he had said.
The new terminal, constructed at a cost of ₹423 crore, spans 51,595 square metres and has the capacity to handle 12 million passengers annually.
