Signal Free Corridor between Shivajinagar and Pune Airport soon

Last updated Oct 9, 2020

Pune : Traffic Police and Pune Municipal Corporation are preparing a plan for ‘signal free corridor’ between Shivaji nagar and Pune Airport.

On Tuesday, the meeting of the Airport Advisory Committee was held under the chairmanship of Bapat. The meeting was attended by MP Vandana Chavan, MLA Sunil Tingre and Airport Director Kuldeep Singh. The meeting discussed the issues of traffic congestion in the airport area, expansion of airport and cargo services, land acquisition, construction of parking lots and many more.

Bapat pointed out that the airport expansion work will be completed on time, by January 2022. The construction of the parking lot will also be accomplished before 2022. The process of acquiring private plots for the expansion of the airport runway will be expedited. The industry is demanding an increase in cargo capacity. Once the land is acquired, the cargo of 150 tons can be transported in more than 500 tons. Goods can come to Pune from Satara, Nagar, Sangli, Kolhapur and travel all over the world through cargo. So the focus is on cargo.” Bapat clarified that a meeting will be held in Delhi with similar agenda.

Bapat said, “The efforts are underway to expand air cargo at Lohegaon Airport and start goods carriage airlifting from Pune. The process of land acquisition of 2.5 acres from the Air Force has been started. Expansion of cargo services will be a priority in the near future and will be followed up in Delhi as well. The expansion work of the airport is nearly complete up to 47% and remaining will be completed within two years.”

The number of people traveling by air from Pune is increasing. The Airports Authority of India is being pursued to provide adequate facilities to cope up with increasing passengers. The Air Force has approached the headquarters to get eight-and-a-half acres of land in the possession of the airport administration.

MP Chavan present at the meeting demanded, “the municipal corporation and the police should immediately prepare a plan and implement it to alleviate traffic congestion in the airport area during rush hour. Whereas MLA Tingre said, “efforts are being made by the municipality to expedite the process for acquisition of private land for runway expansion.

New members on the advisory committee

MP Bapat announced at the meeting that five new members have been appointed to the Airport Advisory Committee. Sudhir Mehta, President, Maratha Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), Abhijit Pawar, Managing Director, Sakal, Retired Air Marshal Bhushan Gokhale, Badshah Syed and Ujjwal Keskar are among the committee.

The new changes are-

· Prepaid rickshaw stop at the airport has been extended till March 7. The rickshaw stand will be kept in the airport premises if allowed by the airport authority.

· Municipal Corporation and traffic police have been asked to prepare a plan for a ‘signal free corridor’ between Shivajinagar and the airport.

· PMP has been allowed to start bus service on five routes from the airport premises.

· There will be a separate meeting between the Municipal Corporation and the State Government for the pending issues of the airport.