As a plan of expansion, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been sanctioned 15 acres of additional defence land at eastern side of existing civil airport. This will help the passengers to get better parking space and a multi-storey building for amenities. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Sunday made this announcement in Pune.
"The AAI officials have been asked to submit a detailed project but inclusion of an underground parking and construction of for a multi-storey building for passenger amenities is a great idea from the point of view of space management. Along with this 15 acre land, we are still trying to get 4 to 5 acres more. However, going by where the things stand at present, the capacity of the expanded airport will be 2-3 times more than the present capacity," said Nitin Gadkari.
He was on a visit to Pune airport to sign the MoU between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and AAI for the additional land. The AAI will now submit a detailed plan on usage of the 15 acre land to the ministry for approval.
To address this issue, the meeting was held on October 8 at New Delhi on development of Pune airport and operating constraints of civil aircrafts. Earlier, the AAI had requested IAF for additional 16.5 acre land for development of Pune airport.
The Pune airport is a part of the Indian Air Force’s Lohegaon air base and currently handles 126 civil aircraft movements. It has eight aircraft parking bays, two of which are reserved for VVIPs, emergency movement, non-scheduled aircraft and the remaining six handle nearly 64 flights every day.
