Pune: The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Tuesday gave ‘site clearance’ for the construction of a greenfield international airport in Purandar near Pune.

“Today, I have accorded site clearance to the new greenfield airport for Pune at Purandar,” Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted on Tuesday. “The existing airport has exhausted its capacity and this new airport will help us (fly) more passenger and (carry out) cargo operations to the vibrant city of Pune,” the minister added.
This airport will be developed by the State-owned Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC). The new airport is expected to come up at an estimated cost of Rs 14,000 crore and will be spread across an area of 2,400 hectares.

The Central government-appointed Steering Committee for the greenfield airport has cleared the last hurdle for the project by giving the final go-ahead and site clearances for the proposed international airport in Purandar on April 23. 

The go-ahead was given during a meeting between the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC) officials and the Steering Committee, in New Delhi.

Suresh Kakani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of MADC, said, “A meeting was held in New Delhi on April 23, where all officials including MADC, Ministry of Defence, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Director General of Civil Aviation, Niti Aayog, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Finance and other officials of different departments were present. A detailed presentation was given to the Steering Committee on covering all the aspects and reports related to the Purandar international airport.”

Passenger traffic at the existing airport at Lohegaon, which is controlled by the Indian Air Force and operated by the AAI, surged 20.6 per cent to 8.1 million in fiscal 2017-18, compared to 6.76 million in fiscal 2016-17, as per the latest AAI data.