By IANS
Pune : Pune Airport will remain closed for a fortnight from Tuesday for repairs to the runway, upsetting IT and industry majors in the city.
The Lohegoan airport, also an Indian Air Force base, requires major repairs in its 1.2-km runway. The repair work has been on since September, leaving the airport functional only from 10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Now the airport will remain fully closed till Feb 26, as repair works for the middle part of the runway will be taken up, officials said.
The airport terminal manager said the increase in the number of flights had ruined the runway completely.
Captain Deepak Shastri, Pune Airport director, said: “A decision had to be taken for critical runway repairs for safety concerns and we had informed everybody much in advance.”
As many as 54 flights a day take off and land here and on an average 7,000 passengers use the airport every day. Private airlines such as Jet Airways have announced daily shuttle services between Pune and Mumbai, the nearest major airport.
The move, however, has upset IT and industry majors in the city.
“While we support the airport authority in this reconstruction project, it is going to be a huge waste of productive time,” said Feroze Padamjee, the Pune unit chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
With Pune emerging as a new IT, automobile and manufacturing hub, the industry feels it is time the city got better connected.
“A little bit of political will is required, connectivity from Pune is very poor and so much time is wasted in travelling from Mumbai,” said Padamjee.
Talks about Pune getting an international airport have been on for a long time. Sites at Chakan and Rajgurunagar, about 40 km from the city along the Pune-Nashik national highway, have been short-listed but construction is yet to takeoff.