After years of delay, the work on the much-awaited project of proposed international airport for Pune is likely to take off soon as authorities are confident that the Pune international airport will become operational before Navi Mumbai international airport.
Divisional commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh on Tuesday said that after the report of the obstacle level survey (OLS) being carried out by an agency from Nashik, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) would give its nod for the proposed international airport at Khed.
Deshmukh said that the OLS is in its final stages and after the agency submits its report to the AAI, subsequent action would be taken. The administration already has made it clear that for the new site no cultivable land is required to be acquired and there are plans to acquire more than 1,700 hectares for the international airport project.
Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had held a meeting with the Kalyani Group officials when the latter’s land in SEZ was suggested for acquiring for the alternative site for the airport. According to the administration sources, Kalyani Group had shown willingness to provide land from its SEZ for the project.
Deshmukh said that the OLS report by the Nashik agency is likely to be prepared soon.
In another media interaction on Modernization of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) project at Pune airport, members of Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries & Agriculture (MCCIA) and airport authority officials also spoke on the proposed international airport for Pune.
An official said, “As the cost of land acquisition is as high as Rs25 crore per acre, the Navi Mumbai project will be delayed.”
Aiming for international connectivity
Airport officials are focusing on Pune’s international connectivity to various destinations and focusing particularly on the Pune-Singapore route.
Civil Aviation Committee chairman SK Jain said, “We have more demand for international destinations. With the Tata Singapore joint venture, we are positive of getting more flights for Pune-Singapore soon.”
“We are also witnessing reverse traffic from Mumbai where people are preferring to travel from Pune as they do not have to wait in a long queue and do not have to spend a lot of time during immigration. Therefore, we are seeing the trend that Mumbaikars are preferring to travel from Pune.”
Rs200-cr modernisation work to commence from January 8
Authorities at Lohegaon Air Force Station (AFS) said that the work of the Rs200-crore project of Modernization of Air Field Infrastructure (MAFI) will commence from January 8.
It means commercial flights operating out of the city on international and a few domestic routes will have to be rescheduled when the daily closure of the airport runway takes effect.
As many as 17 flights will be rescheduled as the work will take around three months and the runway will have to be closed from 10pm to 8am.
Air Force Station ( AFS ), Lohegaon, Air Commodore, Surat Singh said, “With the completion of MAFI project, we will have the instrumental landing system (ILS) in place which will help to improve the visibility of the runway from 2.8 kilometre to 500 metres. Which means that not a single flight will have to be diverted or they have to wait due to visibility issues.”
“The air traffic control system and ILS will enhance the efficiency. The project is underway and the Air Force Headquarters New Delhi has also chosen Pune. We will have a meeting with the airlines and they will be intimated two months in advance to re-schedule the flight timings,” he said. “Instead of four months, we are trying get the work completed in three months,” he said.
Runway upgradation
Instrumental Landing System (ILS) will provide better logistic, accuracy and visibility will improve from current 2.8km to 500m
Air Traffic Management System will help Pune in not giving information to Mumbai Airport manually as the info will be integrated and send automatically
Embedded lights will be put in three rows that is at the side of the runway and in the middle of the runway. Runway has to be dug up as pipe will be put up before putting embedded lights
Ground reality
110 civilian flights Pune airport witnesses every day
1,100 passenger footfalls the airport sees daily
16 hours is the time that AAI will get to handle the same number of flights when MAFI project takes place
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