Pune, 25th February 2022: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) granted permission to lease its 2.5-acre defence land in Lohegaon to the Pune airport authority by charging just one rupee as rent.
This will boost the airport expansion project. The work for cargo terminals at the airport will begin soon.
In a letter written to Pune Member of Parliament (MP) Girish Bapat, the civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said “the MoD will charge a nominal fee of Re 1 per year and grant working permission to begin work on the cargo terminal at the Lohegaon airport.”
There was a constant demand from the industrial sector to create cargo facilities at the airport. For this, the authority needed land that is under the Air Force’s hold and they demanded Rs 1.38 crore as rent from the airport authority.
MP Bapat wrote a letter to Civil Aviation minister Scindia on 8th February requesting him to lessen the rent amount. Later Scindia and Bapat also took a follow-up with Defence minister Rajnath Singh in this regard. Consequently, the MoD decided to charge a nominal rent for its land.
Speaking about this, MP Bapat said, “The Cargo terminal is a need of the city. With this decision, now the project gets the boost. Soon the work will be started to develop the cargo terminal.”
