In a major announcement, the civil aviation ministry has given ‘site clearance’, for the construction of a Greenfield international airport near Pune. The clearance has been given by civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu.
In 2016, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis had announced the setting up of a Greenfield international airport at Purandar, in Pune district. However, the clearance got delayed due to many reasons.
The new airport will be spread across 2400 hectare of area and is expected to develop at an estimated cost of Rs 14,000 crore.
Giving more information on this, Suresh Prabhu tweeted, “Today, I have accorded site clearance to the new greenfield airport for Pune at Purandar.”
He further said that the existing airport has already exhausted its capacity and thus the new airport will help us (fly) more passenger and (carry out) cargo operations to the vibrant city of Pune.
Three months back in January, the airport site had received NoC from the Indian Air Force, but with few conditions. They said that the Air Traffic Control (ATC) will remain at Lohegaon while all civil operations will be shifted to the new airport. Lohegaon will be used exclusively for IAF operations.
The new airport at Purandar will be developed by state-owned Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC). Recently, the officials had held a meeting with the steering committee in order to give a push to the project.
As per the latest data by Airport Authority of India, passenger traffic at the existing airport at Lohegaon, which is controlled by the Indian Air Force and operated by the Airports Authority of India, surged 20.6 percent to 8.16 million in fiscal 2017-18, compared with 6.76 million in fiscal 2016-17.