Shirdi airport accommodates flyers in PVC tents

Thousands of pilgrims flew into Shirdi for the new year’s blessings at the Sai Baba temple, forcing airport officials to resort to PVC tents to accommodate everyone

Thousands of pilgrims flew into Shirdi for the new year’s blessings at the Sai Baba temple, forcing airport officials to resort to PVC tents to accommodate everyone.

Every year in the last week of December and the first week of January, the town in Ahmednagar district experiences a heavy rush. (HT PHOTO)

Every year in the last week of December and the first week of January, the town in Ahmednagar district experiences a heavy rush.

Maharashtra Airport Development Company’s (MADC) Deepak Kapoor tweeted, “Shirdi Airport drawing a large number of passengers... The new PVC tents are a welcome addition to the regular passenger terminal.”

Authorities at Shirdi Airport had erected PVC tents with an aluminium framework, fine seating and lighting to accommodate the soaring crowd. These PVC tents can hold up to 100 extra passengers.

In the last seven days, many flyers came from Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

“Most of the flights to Shirdi during last 10 days were operating with 100 per cent occupancy,” an official who requested anonymity, said.

“The majority of the crowd has come to seek Sai Baba’s blessings. We face crowd management challenges every year, so this year we provided highly comfortable PVC tents for the commuters.”

Advaidh Diwanji, a Karve Nagar resident, who is a regular visitor to Shirdi, said the rush was well managed by the authorities.

“Authorities had made good arrangements for flyers on December 30,” he said.