Pune airport: No proper parking space affects people, airport officials

Sushant Ranjan

Pune, May 15, 2020: As the air services resume at Pune airport, the officials face a new inconvenience. Lack of parking space has led to several vehicles visiting the airport, park on the Pune airport road.

The Pune airport had started functioning from May 25, after flight movements were allowed across the country. At present, an average of 30-32 flights are operating daily.

The airport road turns a parking zone for visitors

The visitors coming at the airport have been parking their vehicles outside the entry-exit gate of the premises. Hundreds of vehicles are being parked outside the gate which is now become a big issue for all including officials of Airport Authority of India (AAI), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), staff of airlines and others.

“People coming to the airport are parking vehicles outside of the gate. The road is now a mess for everyone. This can be a big problem for all of us. The city traffic branch officials sit outside but they are helpless. The visitors are not listening to them also,” said a AAI official.

New parking space under-construction

The multilevel car parking work had started in January this year. City MP Girish Bapat had laid the foundation stone on January 2. The airport authority had also requested visitors to use public transport to come to the airport.

Initially, the work was started on the half of the space allotted because the additional parking space was not provided by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The authority had requested to provide space for vehicle parking, but till now no space or land has been handed over to them.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the process has been stopped. The lockdown started on March 25. In four phases of lockdown all work has been stopped, even the new terminal building work,” said the officer.

The parking number 2 has been allotted to Ola, Uber and auto-rickshaw. The officials of the AAI, CISF and airline staff vehicles.