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Construction of multilevel car parking facility begins at Pune airport
A 1,000-car multilevel car parking facility will be built at the Pune airport, which will not only increase the parking capacity, but will also provide additional land for the expansion of the airport
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has started the construction of a multilevel car parking facility outside the Pune airport premises, but the national body is still in search of an alternate plot to shift the current parking lot. Without the availability of the alternate plot, phase II of the construction of the parking facility cannot begin, according to airport officials.
A 1,000-car multilevel car parking facility will be built at the Pune airport, which will not only increase the parking capacity of the airport parking lot, but will also provide additional land for the expansion of the airport. The new parking facility will have two basements, a ground floors and three upper floors.
Srinivas Rao, interim director of Pune airport, said, “The agreement for the multilevel car parking was signed on November 1, 2019, and the construction started on January 1 this year. The total cost of the project is Rs 120 crore and it is two-year contract.”
Another official of the AAI on the condition of anonymity, said, “Although, we have begun the construction of the facility, we are yet to find an alternate plot to shift the current parking lot. The construction will be underway in two phases and work for phase I is going on right now. Without shifting the current parking area, we cannot start phase II work.”
The official further added that the AAI officials are in talks with a private entity which owns a plot near the airport. The state government has been asked to intervene and expedite the process of acquiring the plot, added the official. “In case, there is no land available, then, we will have to take over the plot which is currently reserved for cab aggregators at the airport, which will be made the temporary parking lot,” added the official.
Rao further said that to improve traffic management inside the airport premises, barricades and tents have been placed to help streamline the movement of four-wheelers.
In addition to creating the parking lot, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is working on decongesting the road from the Yerawada police chowky towards the airport by widening it to 50 metres.
A junior road engineer of the PMC, said, “The Development Plan mentions a 30-metre road on that stretch. Currently, the road is about 10 metres and we got permission from the air force authorities for widening only up to three metres. In addition, we need at least Rs 14-15 crore for the entire road widening work, but in the ongoing budget, we were allocated only Rs 1 crore provision and so, we stopped the work once the budget provision finished. In the 2020-21 draft budget, we have received fresh budgetary provisions and work will start once the money is allocated.”
The road between Yerawada jail police chowky and 509 chowk will be widened and trees along the road and the utilities cables of the air force will be removed for the work. Local MLA Sunil Tingre, said, “Once we get approval from the air force authorities for widening the road as per the DP, the area will be free from traffic congestion.”
New airport director
Former Udaipur airport director Kuldeep Singh will take over as the Pune airport director on Wednesday. Singh was felicitated for quick action and for executing safety arrangements without losing time after an Air India flight going from Rajkot to Delhi on October 2, 2018, made an emergency landing at the Udaipur airport. Reportedly, there was smoke in the cargo hold of the flight, which necessitated the emergency landing.
