State plans regional air links to woo investors

To boost regional development and attract investors, the state government is planning to develop regional air connectivity at district and regional headquarters and in smaller centres across Maharashtra.

Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who chaired a meeting in this regard on Monday, said the government was focusing on infrastructural development. He added that a push for air connectivity would boost the investment prospects of these regions.

Maharashtra has 28 airports and airstrips, of which four are under construction or proposed, two are private and one is not in use.

“Gujarat has less airports than us, but air transport operates from 10 locations. Madhya Pradesh is also ahead of us,” said Mungantiwar, adding that in contrast Maharashtra had among the highest number of airports and airstrips in India.

Of these, four airports, namely those in Mumbai, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nagpur are commercially operational; the state planned to operationalise the remaining 21 regional airports and airstrips (barring one closed airstrip in Phaltan, two private airports in Amby Valley and Shirpur). Maharashtra also has four greenfield airports under execution or under construction, including the Navi Mumbai airport, Pune (Rajgurunagar), Parule Chipi in Sindhudurg and Shirdi.

In the first phase, the state will increase the length of landing strips, which are less than 1,500 metres, to allow larger aircraft to ply on them. This includes the sites in Kolhapur, Akola, Juhu, Yavatmal, Amravati, Dhule, Karad and Ratnagiri.

Development of the Akola and Amravati airports will also boost the textile industry in the nine cotton growing districts in Vidarbha.

Mungantiwar said they would also scout for a new site for an airport in Chandrapur due to restrictions on expanding the present 953-metre-long airstrip due to the 272-metre chimney at the Chandrapur super thermal power station.

Mungantiwar said they would push for flights on Kolhapur-Pune-Mumbai, Solapur-Kolhapur, Nanded-Latur-Aurangabad-Pune, Solapur-Mumbai and Ratnagiri-Pune routes.

The passenger traffic during 2013-14 from domestic and international airports was 272.1 lakh and 102.4 lakh, respectively.