Pune | Commence survey for airport runway expansion, says Chandrakant Patil

On Thursday, Patil chaired the meeting of airport officials which was attended by Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao, collector Rajesh Deshmukh, commissioner of Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority Rahul Mahiwal and Pune Municipal Corporation’s additional commissioner Vikas Dhakane.

“Once the new terminal building becomes operational, it will fulfil the needs of domestic travel. To expand international operations, we need to extend the runway. A survey for the project should be commenced and thorough study of the same should be done,” said Patil.

The existing length of the runway at Pune airport is 8,333 feet, which will be scaled upto 10,000 feet. Recently, the Indian Air Force, which owns the airport where civil operations are held as ‘civil enclave’, has agreed to hand over the PMC 23,000 square feet land in exchange for the Lohegaon road land that will be acquired for runway extension.

Patil said that with expansion of the airport facilities, especially the new terminal building, the daily flight handling capacity of the airport will go up to 218. Presently, about 180 flight movements take place at the airport.

“The expansion will meet the current needs of domestic travel. However, we will need to work towards increasing international operations. It’s important to give push to developing the new international airport at Purandar. I will soon arrange a meeting of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister to push the project,” said Patil.

Pune Airport director Satish Dhoke said currently, 30,000 passengers travel from and to Pune airport, including 540 international passengers. “Once the new terminal building opens, the passenger count will go up significantly,” said Dhoke.

The work on the new terminal building is in the last phase and will have a built up area of 51,595 square feet.