MoD gives approval to handover land for Pune airport: Maha min

The Ministry of Defence has given an in-principle approval for handover of 18 acres of land for the expansion of the Pune airport at Lohegaon, a Maharashtra Minister Girish Bapat said today.
The Maharashtra Parliamentary affairs minister, who is also the guardian minister of Pune, said the road blocks to expand the Pune airport at Lohegaon will be resolved in next six months.
Bapat was here to attend a meeting in this regard during which Defence minister Manohar Parrikar, Union Road and Surface Transport minister Nitin Gadkari and, Union Human Resources Development minister Prakash Javadekar were also present.
The minister said that the Defence Ministry has agreed to handover 34 acres of land for expansion of the airport.

Of this, 16 acres has already been handed over.
"There was an in-principle approval to handover remaining 18 acres of land. The existing land is inadequate for expansion of the airport. The state government will compensate by giving land to the army at some other location," Bapat added.