Now, international airport to come up at Khed

The new international airport for Pune is slated to come up at Khed. A proposal to that effect has been forwarded to Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC).

Guardian minister Ajit Pawar made it clear last week that availability of land would not be a problem for the airport. It had earlier been decided to construct the airport at Chakan and over 3,000 hectares of land were acquired, which resulted in a rise in land prices there. The increase in land prices resulted in opposition to the airport project by the villagers and farmers.

Now it is clear that the airport would come up at Khed. The land, measuring more than 1,700 hectares, spread over five villages in Khed taluka including Koye (344 hectares), Dhamane (633 hectares), Paeet (452 hectares), Raundhalwadi (82 hectares) and Aaskhed Budruk (136 hectares) has been proposed for acquisition for the airport. In addition, 85 hectares of residential land from Khed are to be acquired for the airport project.

Divisional commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh, when contacted, said that the proposal has already been sent to MADC and technical opinion of the experts from the Civil Aviation department and Airports Authority would be taken. The central teams would visit the site to examine the technical feasibility after which decision would be taken. He said that after sending the proposal, some additional information was also sought which was sent by the office.