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Journalism of Courage
It has been three months since Pune airport’s new terminal building—with a considerably larger capacity and upgraded facilities—was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, flyers still await its operationalisation as they continue to vent their anger about having to fly from the “bus-stand-like airport”, where the situation seems to have only worsened.
When the new terminal was inaugurated on March 11, the Pune airport administration stated that the new building would be operationalised within “four-five weeks” after getting the regulatory approvals from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
Elected representatives, specifically Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, had requested the airport administration to expedite the process and commence the operations by April 1. Both these “deadlines” have been missed by a long shot.
Officers of the Airports Authority of India have said they have received the BCAS approvals recently and that the operationalisation of the new terminal is held up because the demand for additional CISF personnel required at the new and expanded terminal has not been yet met.
“We are waiting for CISF reinforcement. We have requested 231 additional CISF personnel and once we get them, we will start shifting to the new terminal. All other approvals including security clearance and clearance for food and beverage stalls have been received,” Santosh Dhoke, director of Pune airport, told The Indian Express.
Dhoke said the new terminal building is bigger with an annual capacity to handle 9 million passengers and a peak capacity of 3,000 passengers as opposed to the annual capacity of 7.7 million and peak capacity of 2,400 of the existing terminal building.
“Since it’s a bigger building we need more men on the ground. Also, we will be shifting in phases. For some transitional period, both the terminal buildings will be operational, making the requirement of the additional security more pressing than ever,” said Dhoke.
Dhoke said he was hopeful of getting the requisite enforcement in a short time since the general elections are over. “The day we get the additional CISF personnel, we will start the work to operationalise the new terminal building,” he said.
‘Will bring considerable relief’
Dhoke said that since the existing building is dealing with more passengers than its capacity, the passengers are bound to be inconvenienced and their anger – which can often be seen on social media – is justified.
“The temporary solution could be to reduce the flights. But that would mean that the flight tickets will become more expensive and it will hurt the passengers. There will be considerable relief to the flyers when the new terminal building opens as it’s much larger and has state-of-the-art facilities,” said Dhoke.
The new terminal building has come up at a cost of Rs 423 crore and has a built-up area of 51,595 square metres.
