The inauguration of Pune Airport's new terminal will be delayed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Maharashtra on February 19 has been postponed. During the visit, originally planned to coincide with the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the PM was scheduled to go to Satara.
While PM Modi wasn't initially scheduled to inaugurate Pune Airport's new terminal, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar recently disclosed that the Maharashtra government had requested the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to include the inauguration of the terminal along with four new metro stations in the city during his visit.
“We are trying to get the new terminal building of Pune Airport and the new metro stretches inaugurated by the Prime Minister on the day when he will be visiting Satara. The new terminal building is almost ready except for a few things,” Pawar said, adding, "It is the PMO’s call at the end of the day. If he could do this by pressing a button (through videoconferencing) that will also do."
The inauguration has been a long-pending issue, with Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi recently raising concerns about it in the upper house. She questioned why Pune Airport's new terminal building has not been inaugurated and made operational for passengers despite the work being completed for the last five months.
In response, Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh mentioned that the work on the terminal is still ongoing and has not been completed yet. He clarified, "It is not the fact that the new terminal building is waiting to be inaugurated for the last five months. In fact, the work is still going on and still, the new terminal building work has not been completed."
Chaturvedi later took to X (formerly Twitter) and questioned, "As per Pune Airport authorities, the new terminal has been ready for five months. Today, when asked a specific question on why the inauguration has been pending, the minister informed the house that the terminal isn’t complete. Who is lying and misleading?"
Meanwhile, the official X handle of the Pune Airport replied to Chaturvedi's post and stated the process of installation of the inline baggage screening system is in progress. "Improvement in artworks, testing/dry run of various operational facilities along with Site Acceptance Test (SAT) of CCTV, IT infrastructure, and FIDS system is also underway and will be completed soon," the post further read.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray also took a dig at the BJP-led central government and said for them "elections are the criteria, not citizens". "The government refuses to inaugurate the new terminal building of the old Pune Airport, fully ready, for five months. On the other hand, to claim credit, they want to inaugurate an unfinished coastal road in Mumbai," he added.
Notably, when Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inspected the new terminal last month, he said that the inauguration will be done in two or three weeks. "My responsibility was to complete the project which has happened now. The Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Ministers will discuss and decide about the inauguration,” he had said.
The new terminal, constructed at a cost of ₹423 crore, spans 51,595 square metres and has the capacity to handle 12 million passengers annually.
