Murlidhar Mohol, the newly appointed Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) from Pune, on Thursday evening took to X (formerly Twitter) to share that he has written a letter to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh concerning the expansion of Pune Airport's runway.
Mohol wrote, "Today, a letter was sent to Union Minister Rajnath Singh, requesting to give suitable instructions to IAF/DEO to explore the possibility of runway extension of Pune Airport by giving permission for conducting an OLS joint survey of the area complying with the requirements of CAR (Civil Aviation Requirements)." He added, "In this regard, I will meet the Defence Minister on Monday."
With the expansion of the runway at Pune Airport, more international flights will operate from here, bringing relief to long-distance fliers who currently have to travel to Mumbai to board international flights.
Earlier this week, Mohol held a review meeting with Pune Airport Director Santosh Dhoke and Pune Divisional Commissioner Chandrakant Pulkundwar. Several other senior officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were also present. After the meeting, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader took to X and provided details about the discussions during the meeting.
For the runway expansion project, Mohol said 35 acres of land is needed. "Remuneration for this land needs to be given to the landowners for which we have finalised a formula. The formula is that 60% of the amount will be given by the Maharashtra government, 20% by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), and 10% each by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA)," he said.
