Airport in Sindhudurg to function from January 2021: Maharashtra CM

Flight operations from the newly-built Chipi airport in Konkan’s Sindhudurg district will commence operations from January 2021, Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray has announced on Sunday.

Thackeray said that while the operations were to commence from May 1, 2020, it got delayed owing to the pandemic-ensued lockdown.

In his address to the state on Sunday, the CM said, “The operations were to start from May. However, it got delayed owing to the lockdown as a lot of equipment was to be brought from outside the country. We will, however, start operations from January.”

The airport, located close to the Goa border, will provide better connectivity to the Konkan region of Maharashtra, Goa, north Karnataka and western Maharashtra. It will further boost tourism and development in the Konkan region.

In April 2019, the ministry of civil aviation had permitted Alliance Air, an Air India’s subsidiary, to operate flights from the new airport under the government’s regional connectivity scheme, Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN), which proposes to increase air connectivity to smaller cities. The airport has been built at an investment of ₹520 crore. The airport has a 2,500-metre long runway and a terminal building with a capacity to handle 200 departing and arriving passengers each.

On Monday, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane said that the airport should be named after the late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray.