No plans to shift Pune airport to Purandar ; informs MP Girish Bapat

Chaitraly Deshmukh

Considering the frequent usage of air passengers facilities in Pune and in order to reduce the congestion in the existing building, soon the Airport Authority of Pune will have an integrated terminal with an area of more than five lakh square feet as well as the state-of-the-art facilities which will start functioning from this year itself assured Member of Parliament Girish Bapat on Thursday while addressing mediapersons in the city.

MP Bapat said, “The shifting of Pune airport to Purandar and Baramati will not take place. It shall remain at Viman Nagar area itself. I have been pursuing the expansion of the airport for the last three years, visited the Airport Authority on Thursday and reviewed the ongoing development work.  I had recently held a meeting with the Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on the airport expansion. In this meeting, they agreed to provide 13 acres of land required for cargo expansion of the airport at a nominal rate of Rs 1. He also agreed to provide 2360 square meters of space for the conservation department to solve the traffic congestion in the airport area.”

He further said, “The development works like airport expansion, transportation, multi-storey parking etc. would be completed on war footing and would be available for passengers service. The follow-up is also underway to provide 136 acres of Air Force space for the expansion of the airport runway. The new integrated terminal will be fully air-conditioned. It will have a capacity of 1.90 crore passengers per year. It will be able to accommodate 2,300 passengers during rush hour which include 1,700 domestic and 600 international passengers. The building will have five new routes for passenger boarding, eight automatic escalators, 15 lifts, 34 check-in counters. The building will have facilities like passenger luggage system, five conveyor belts in the arrival area.”

He added, “The new terminal will be environmentally friendly. It will provide 36,000 square feet of space for food and shops. It will have drinking water facilities, sewage treatment plants and well-equipped machinery, emergency crisis handling mechanism and toilets. It will be designed to enhance the beauty of Pune. Construction of the terminal started from 2018. About 61 per cent of the work has been completed and it will be completed by August 2022. Space for parking at the airport has always been a problem. The new building will lead to a permanent settlement. A four-storey and two-storey basement building is also being constructed at a cost of Rs 120 crore. It can accommodate 1,024 vehicles at a time.”