“I am very happy to announce that Ministry of Defence has approved to allot 13 acres of adjacent land of BSO yard to Airports Authority of India for construction of International and Domestic cargo infrastructure at Pune Airport,” Nitin Gadkari, union minister of transport, who is also the head of the infrastructure committee confirmed the same on social media.
While appreciating the efforts of Ajay kumar Ex APD and Santosh Dhoke APD Pune Airport, Defense Minister rajnathsingh and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, the union minister tweeted, “This will benefit western Maharashtra region for export of agriculture and Industrial Products.”
The issue involving transfer of the exiting cargo terminal, had been pending for more than a year now and was supposed to be shifted in a 2.5 acre land belonging to the IAF. However, the defence ministry had recently reduced the yearly lease amount to Re. 1 from the earlier demand of Rs. 1.38 crore.
An online report by The Indian Express implies that this idea was first raised back in 2017-18, and was being followed by the MoD ever since. While visiting Pune last year, Gadkari had said “there is an agreement wherein the MoD would provide the Pune Airport land in part exchange for land that it needed in Chandigarh.”
According to officials, the land required by the Air Force in Chandigarh is under the control of the AAI and that the Airports Authority of India had agreed to barter the land.