Maharashtra government to upgrade airports at Shirdi, Solapur

Maharashtra government plans to upgrade airports in Solapur, the religious town of Shirdi and Amravati as part of its efforts to encourage air connectivity.

"A new airport will come up in 550 hectare area in Solapur. Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) will sign a MoU with Airport Authority of India (AAI) soon," an official in General Administration Department (GAD) said.

Similarly, the existing air strips at Shirdi and Amravati will be expanded. MADC plans to have a Special Purpose Vehicle to execute the project, he said.

Meanwhile, the state government's proposal to provide flights on low-connectivity routes from bigger cities to smaller towns has come as a cropper because of its unfeasibility, he said.

When overnight trains are available from Mumbai and second class AC tickets are around Rs 1,500, the air fare higher than that price is not feasible, he said.

"Similarly, large planes have landing and take off issues on smaller airports and passenger traffic is not adequate, the GAD official said.

Currently, there are 22 airports in the state, but there is no air connectivity from bigger cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad to smaller towns.