Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new terminal building of the Pune Airport through videoconferencing on March 10, Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials have confirmed. The Centre and the AAI were at the receiving end of criticism from Opposition leaders and social activists who claimed that the delay in inaugurating the building was due to the PM’s unavailability. “The new terminal building will be inaugurated on March 10 at the hands of the Prime Minister through video conferencing. The chief minister will attend the event at the Pune Airport,” Pune Airport Director Santosh Dhoke told The Indian Express. As per the AAI, after the inauguration, safety tests will be held at the airport for about four to six weeks before it is ready for operations. In January 2024, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had inspected the new terminal building and promised that it would be inaugurated in two or three weeks. Constructed after spending Rs 423 crore, the new terminal building has a built-up area of 51,595 square meters and is built on an area acquired from the Indian Air Force. “An airport building is not just glass and cement. It is an avenue into a city. So we have displayed Maharashtrian culture inside and outside the airport building. Indian culture is full of diversity and we want our airports to display that diversity. At Pune airport, we have given a Shaniwar Wada-like façade and have also displayed other cultural and historical symbols of the state at the canopy,” Scindia had told reporters after his inspection. The new terminal building will have a passenger handling capacity of 12 million passengers per annum, an upgrade from the current capacity of 7.2 million passengers per annum.
