Spacious Pune Airport Building, Car Park Construction Over 60% Complete; Travelator To Connect Parking And Terminal Building

Sumit Singh

Pune, 1st September 2021: In order to increase the passenger traffic from Pune and reduce the congestion in the existing building of Pune airport, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is constructing an integrated terminal with an area of more than five lakh square feet and state-of-the-art facilities at a cost of Rs 475 crores. It will be open for use by 2022.

A meeting of Airport Authority officials was held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Pune MP Girish Bapat, who has been pursuing the expansion of the airport for the last three years.  MP Bapat had recently met Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Shinde and made a statement on airport expansion.

The state-of-the-art new integrated terminal will be fully air-conditioned. It will have the capacity to accommodate 19 million passengers per year. It will be able to cater to 2,300 passengers (1,700 domestic and 600 international) during peak hours. The building will have five new routes (passenger boarding bridges), eight automatic escalators, 15 lifts, 34 check-in counters, passenger luggage system, five conveyor belts in the arrival area and more.

The new terminal will be environmentally friendly. It will provide 36,000 square feet for food and shops. It will have drinking water facilities, sewage treatment plants as well as well-equipped and state-of-the-art toilets. It will be designed to add to the beauty of Pune.

The construction of the new terminal building started in October 2018. Of this, 61 per cent of work has been completed and it will be completed by August 2022.

Bapat said that the terminal at the present airport is only 22,000 square meters. This causes great inconvenience to passengers and airlines during peak hours. The terminal has the capacity to handle 80 lakh passengers annually. Considering the growing expansion of Pune, the number of citizens traveling by air has also increased. Therefore, a well-equipped terminal was needed for the convenience of the passengers. It will be completed now.

“Pune Airport in Lohegaon is an important airport in Maharashtra. It connects ten surrounding districts. Also, the number of industries in and around Pune is increasing day by day. Therefore, there was a need for a terminal that would provide better facilities to more and more passengers. So the last three years have been striving for the expansion of this airport. This work will be completed soon and the air travel of the citizens will be more pleasant”, Bapat said.

An officer said, “The new terminal building will be an energy-efficient building with 4-star GRIHA rating. Provision of 36000 Sq. ft. space for F&B and retail outlets are also there for refreshment/ pleasure of the passengers. There will also be a huge canopy of size 400 Mtr. x 40 Mtr. on the city side of the existing building and new building together which will give a magnificent look to the airport from the city side. The scope of work also includes the construction of a service yard of 3800 Sqm, UG tank of capacity 20 lakh litre, STP of capacity 1130 KLD, and landscape area of 12000 Sqm on the city side beyond the canopy.”

Space for parking at the airport remains a problem. The new building will provide a permanent solution. A four-storey and two-storey basement building are also being constructed at a cost of Rs 120 crore. It can accommodate 1024 vehicles at a time. The new buildings also provide 15,000 square feet of space for passenger entertainment and commercial use. The new terminal will be suitable for passengers of all ages including senior citizens.

“Due to the acute paucity of the land, the car parking facility at the airport had always been a cause of serious concern for years. To give a permanent solution to the parking issue, a multilevel car park (ground plus three-storeyed + 2 basement floors) with a cost of Rs 120 crore is also under construction. It will have a capacity for parking of 1024 cars. Provision of 15000 Sqm of the commercial area is also there for entertainment and convenience of passengers and visitors. The car parking area will be connected to the departure area of the existing building with a sky bridge with the provision of a travelator. There will be a staircase, escalators and elevators at the building side for dropping/ going up. The physical progress of the work is 65% and is likely to be completed by April 2022”, an officer told PunekarNews.in

https://www.punekarnewsmarathi.in/review-meeting-on-airport-expansion-under-the-chairmanship-of-mp-girish-bapat/