PUNE: The city airport is looking ahead to the completion of its new terminal building and multi-level parking lot this year after accomplishing the crucial runway re-carpeting work last year.
The new terminal building is expected to be operational by August giving a boost to passenger traffic, facilities and flight movements. Similarly, the multi-level parking is expected to go functional from March and could end the perennial parking problems at the airport.
“It is a crucial year considering two important projects — the new integrated terminal building and the multi-level car parking lot — will be ready this year. The projects will elevate the airport in terms of facilities and infrastructure. The projects are expected to end the many problems flyers face each day at the airport and also play an important part towards the increase in flight and passenger traffic,” an airport official said.
In October 2021, Pune MP and airport advisory committee chairman Girish Bapat had said the car parking facility needed to start from January simultaneously with the ongoing construction work, as parking has become a major problem at the airport.
An official, however, said there’s some more work to be done before it’s finally opened to public. “The project consists of a skywalk, which will connect the parking to the existing terminal building. We have been told that the parking lot will be ready by March. Vehicles can be parked in the facility from March, while the work on the skywalk will continue and will be completed by April. We are expecting full-scale operations of the parking lot from April end,” an airport source said.
Officials said while the construction of the multi-level parking was around 75% complete, the new terminal building’s construction was also in advanced stages.
“The new terminal building is important for the airport and has many features. The work is around 65% complete and we are expecting it to be ready and operational by August. However, some bottlenecks such as shifting of the existing cargo-hold area and vacation of land by HPCL and BPCL remains. The timely completion of the project depends on them. It has been more than a year that the existing cargo-hold area is awaiting a shift. The new terminal building cannot be integrated to the existing one unless the bottlenecks are removed,” another official said.
Flyers as well as aviation experts said the projects needed to be completed on priority. “At present there are far too many infrastructural problems at the airport and flyers are never at ease. While parking is a major hassle, the scene inside the terminal building is mostly chaotic. While the two projects are a welcome step and should be completed on priority, wonder why isn’t the state divulging details on the new airport announced in 2016?” asked Shekhar Devadiga, a trader and frequent flyer.
Aviation analyst Dhairyashil Vandekar said the focus needed to shift on the proposed new airport. “The new projects can hold the capacity of the airport for some time considering that the Pune airport is among the 10 busiest airports in the country. The focus needs to be on the new airport project at Purandar,” he said.
