'Apt acquisition plan for Chakan airport needed'

Pune: Union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel has reiterated the need for the Maharashtra government to come up with an apt acquisition plan to push the proposed Pune international airport project at Rajgurunagar near Chakan.
The project has been stuck for quite some time now over the agitation by the farmers from the seven villages near Chakan that are notified for acquisition despite the Maharashtra Cabinet have cleared the project and has sanctioned Rs 200 crore seed money.
Patel was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of a new non-scheduled flight service between Aamby Valley City — the country’s first integrated hill city spread over a 4,294 hectare expanse, off Lonavla near here — and Mumbai.
Six flights, mainly small aircraft with eight to 18 seating capacity, will operate initially from Fridays to Mondays between Mumbai and Aamby Valley. The project developers, Sahara India, have set up a self-sustained state-of-the-art private airport having a 1,200 metre runway and an independent air traffic control (ATC) unit.
Sahara has tied up with aviation service provider, Airone, which will engage the small aircraft for the Mumbai-Aamby Valley service. “Next, we have plans to start similar service to Pune and cities in Gujarat, which together constitute almost 40 per cent of our customers,” said Aamby Valley head Seemanto Roy. “We are also working on extending the existing runway from 1,200 metres to 2,400 metres to enable operation of bigger aircraft,” said Roy.
05/02/10 Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Feb 2010, New Feb 2010