Punekars will no longer have to travel all the way to Mumbai to board international flights. With the expansion of the runway at Pune Airport to take place soon, more international flights will operate from here, bringing relief to long-distance fliers, said Murlidhar Mohol, the newly appointed Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) from Pune.
Mohol on Sunday held a review meeting with Pune Airport Director Santosh Dhoke and Pune Divisional Commissioner Chandrakant Pulkundwar. Several other senior officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were also present. After the meeting, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader took to X (formerly Twitter) and provided details about the discussions during the meeting.
For the runway expansion project, Mohol said 35 acres of land is needed. "Remuneration for this land needs to be given to the landowners for which we have finalised a formula. The formula is that 60% of the amount will be given by the Maharashtra government, 20% by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), and 10% each by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA)," Mohol said, adding that he will meet Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh next week regarding the permissions necessary for the expansion of the runway.
Talking about the new Greenfield airport project for Pune, Mohol said that after the Mahayuti government returned to Maharashtra, it decided to revert back to the original Purandar site for the new airport. He also informed that the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had approved the Purandar site in May 2024. It already had a clearance from the Ministry of Defence. "Now, since almost 99 per cent of technical issues are resolved, the land acquisition for the project will commence," he added.
The MoS for Civil Aviation further said that the new terminal at the Pune Airport will be operational in the "next few days". He recently met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and requested him for the allotment of required Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel.
