Devendra Fadnavis gives nod to appoint consultant for development plan of Purandar airport

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday gave his approval to appoint a consultant, to prepare the development plan (DP) of the proposed greenfield Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje international airport at Purandar in Pune district. The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Fadnavis with board of directors of Maharashtra airport development corporation (MADC) in Mumbai on Thursday.The chief minister also gave a nod for setting up a project management office for the proposed Purandar airport.

A senior MADC official who was present during the meeting said, “The chief minister conducted a meeting with MADC officials and took a review of the work in regard to the proposed international airport in the Purandar district. CM has directed the MADC to set up an office in Purandar. The CM has also asked the MADC to appoint a consultant for the development planning of the Purandar international airport. We will soon finalise the consultant.”

The government plans to develope the international airport on 2,400 hectares of land, which will be acquired from seven villages including Pargaon, Khanwadi, Ekhatpur, Kumbharvalan, Vanpuri, Udachiwadi and Tekwadi. The project is aimed at meeting the growing air travel demand from Pune and is expected to give a major boost to the development of western Maharashtra and Marathwada. 

District collector officials said that the land acquisition process for the Purandar airport will start very soon. Fadnavis held a meeting with Pune collector Naval Kishor Ram recently and asked him to expedite the land acquisition process for the Purandar airport. 

MADC had already started the basic work for the proposed airport and is in process to appoint the consultant for preparing the development plan. The chief minister suggested the officers that instead of just planning the airport they should plan for the whole region, and make the area an airport city. 

Speed up night landing facility at Shirdi Airport 

Along with Purandar airport, chief minister has given various instructions for other airports in the state. Fadnavis has directed to speed up the night landing facilities at Shirdi airport. Chief minister approved 6.12 hectors land for the multi-modal international cargo hub and airport at Nagpur(MIHAN) project in the meeting with MADC.