Preliminary survey for new airport in Pune completed

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) The government will develop a new airport in Pune as the existing airport was unable to meet the growing traffic.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Civil Aviation Praful Patel said the Pune airport belongs to the Ministry of Defence where the Airports Authority of India (AAI) maintains a civil enclave to handle civil aircraft operations.

Although the existing terminal had been expanded and modified, the facilities available there were not adequate to handle the rush, he said The Maharashtra government had proposed a site at Rajgurunagar near Chakan/Pune for the construction of a new airport. The preliminary site inspection had been carried out jointly by AAI, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Cooperation (MIDC), said the Minister.

The MIDC had been requested to provide meteorological data for finalising the orientation of the runway and for carrying out techno-economic feasibility study, he said.

UNI