Modern airport: Lohegaon gone, hopes rest with Chakan II

Pune: With Lohegaon airport having missed the bus to modernisation due to non-availability of land, the only option the city now has to get a modern international airport is at the site at Chakan II where the Indian Air Force has given its clearance for a runway. A socio-economic feasibility report has also been conducted by the Airports Authority of India.
Nearly 10 of the 35 non-metro airports including Chandigarh, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Port Blair, Agra, Dehradun, Agatti, Udaipur, Goa and Jammu, besides Pune are in the same boat. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has set December 2007 as the deadline to complete the process of selecting joint-venture partners for individual airports or clusters of airports.
The modernisation would require a minimum of 100 acres. The AAI’s proposal for earmarking 200 acres of vacant land south of the Lohegaon airport for developing infrastructure was given an in-principle nod last June. Airport Advisory Committee president Suresh Kalmadi had then said that AAI’s demand for earmarking the land had been met with.
Subsequently, Lohegaon airport director, Deepak Shastri said they had given the AAI the input that land for modernisation was not available in Pune.
The civil aviation ministry had excluded Pune from the list of non-metro airports slated for city-side development through public private partnerships (PPP) last October.
25/05/07 Expressindia.com

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Categories: Airports May 2007, New May 2007