Journalism of Courage
With the transfer of vice-chairman-cum-managing director Tanaji Satre, the technical report on the new sites which were shown to the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) will now have to wait. Satre, who took charge two years ago, was transferred as divisional commissioner of Konkan.
“With the transfer of the managing director, there is some delay as it will have to be reviewed again. We are awaiting the CM’s intervention and are hoping for a meeting in the coming fortnight. The CM is at present visiting the Vidarbha region and following that he has a Japan visit scheduled. Once he returns, we will meet him to address the Pune airport issue,’’ said P S Meena, Additional Chief Secretary General Administration and Civil Aviation. He said the sites were yet to be fixed as farmers had opposed the earlier sites.
At present, the additional chief secretary holds the charge of MADC as well. “The post has been vacant and I am holding additional charge,’’ said Meena.
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Senior officials from the Mantralaya, however, said Satre had just completed two years and even his predecessor U P S Madan had the same tenure. MADC’s first VCMD was R C Sinha, a retired bureaucrat from 2004-2010. He resigned abruptly and he was succeeded by Madan.
However, the sudden shifting out will again delay the Pune airport site process, said a senior official from the district administration.
With more sites shown to Mantralaya officials, a technical report was expected for the district administration to go ahead with the site. However, the sudden change in the office will see a further delay. “With the transfer we will have to only wait for the report to come in. Only after the report is ready can we go ahead with a feasibility study and other process which will delay the process further,’’ said some of the officials.
While the earlier sites — Khed and Chakan — were being considered, the district administration was asked to provide alternate sites to avoid the stalemate
over suitable land. With options provided, the meeting was convened by the Pune divisional commissioner earlier last month in Pune.
At present, the administration has proposed three alternative sites and the feasibility report will be prepared for the same. The proposed airport needs at least 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares), and even as land banks have been shown, there is no continuous tract of government land so land will have to be acquired.
For technical reasons, the airport runway should be in the east-west direction and for this the sites proposed have been shown to the AAI and IAF for their technical report.
