‘Land acquisition for Pune airport runway extension to be completed in six months’

Union minister Murlidhar Mohol said that OLS for extending the runway at Pune International Airport has been completed and land acquisition is planned to be completed in next six months

PUNE: At a recent meeting with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and union minister of state for civil aviation and cooperation Murlidhar Mohol at the Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai, it was discussed and finalised that the Obstacle Limitation Survey (OLS) for extending the runway at Pune International Airport has been completed and that land acquisition for the runway extension will be completed in the next six months.

Union minister Murlidhar Mohol said that OLS for extending the runway at Pune International Airport has been completed and land acquisition is planned to be completed in next six months. (HT)

There were detailed discussions regarding aviation services and development works of all airports in Maharashtra. Senior officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Army, Maharashtra Airports Corporation and government were present at the meeting.

Mohol said, “The OLS for expanding the runway at Pune International Airport has been completed and land acquisition is planned to be completed in the next six months. This will help in increasing the number of international flights and will bring great relief to the people of Pune.”

“The OLS to review the feasibility of this expansion has been completed at record speed. Also, it is a matter of happiness for the people of Pune as the results of this survey are found to be positive,” Mohol said.

The OLS of Pune Airport began on July 8, 2024 and was completed by the end of July 2024. Obstacles near the ‘landing point’ of the runway are the most important. For this, a special team of the AAI flew down to Pune from Delhi to carry out the survey. During a period of 10 days, high buildings, trees etc. were inspected in the surrounding area along with the ‘take off’ and ‘landing’ points. A drawing was also attached to the report.

Currently, the length of the Pune Airport runway is 2,535 metres (8,316 feet) while the width is 45 metres. Five hundred metres of space is required on the eastern side of the runway, and 300 metres on the western side. If the runway is extended by about 800 metres, the total length will be about 10,940 feet. If the length of the runway is within 11,000 feet, even big planes can land at Pune airport. For this, an expenditure of around ₹160 crore is expected on land acquisition.