PM Modi inaugurates Pune airport’s new terminal built at Rs 423 crore

The new building has a passenger handling capacity of 9 million passengers per annum and a peak hour capacity of 3,000 passengers, a significant improvement over the existing building’s capacity of 7.7 million per annum and peak hour capacity of 2,400 passengers.

The Airports of Authority of India (AAI) officials said that the operations from the new building will commence in 4-5 weeks as various national and international agencies will conduct requisite testings before systems are operationalized for public use. AAI will shut the existing building for renovation once the new building is operational.

Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis was present for the inauguration. (Express photo: Pavan Khengre)

Speaking at the inauguration, Fadnavis said the new international airport in Pune will come up in Purandar, the original site planned for the project. “The new terminal building will serve the city’s needs for the next four to five years with an annual capacity of 9 million passengers per annum. However, it is important that the work for the new international airport progresses during this period. This is a defence airstrip and we need to have a separate airstrip for Pune through an international airport which will come up at Purandar,” Fadnavis said.

“The site chosen at Purandar had received all clearances from Defence ministry. Later, the state government shifted the site by 20 km which was not found to be viable. The new airport will hence come up at the old site in Purandar,” he added.

Pawar urged the AAI to expedite the testing process so that Pune flyers can breathe some relief as the present terminal is too congested and ‘like a bus stand’.

“We have been told that the actual operations will commence after at least a month. We have requested the Airports’ Authority of India to finish the requisite work at the soonest and start operations from the new building on April 1,” he said. Pawar said that late Pune MP Girish Bapat had taken special efforts to obtain land for this project from the defence authorities. The government is also following up on the pending project of runway extension which will open the Pune airport to large-bodied aircrafts, he said.