~~ SHIRDI AIRPORT WORK IN FULL SWING ~~

Vishwas Kothari, TNN

02nd July`2010

PUNE: The Maharashtra Airport Development Company

(MADC), the state's special planning authority,
has put the Shirdi airport project in Kopargaon taluka of
Ahmednagar district, in a higher gear.

The Rs 340-crore airport project is a vital part of the state

government's effort to promote religious tourism at
Shirdi,
known for the temple of Sai Baba, one of the most
revered spiritual gurus in the country.
The devotees of Sai Baba span across the country as well
as the continents.

Tenders for a slew of project-related activities, including

area-levelling, laying of runway,
building of compound wall around the project area and
laying of drainage, were opened on Wednesday.
"We are now into the phase of issuing work orders over
the next 15 days," a top MADC official told TOI on
Thursday.

The airport is to come up over a sprawling 400 hectare

(ha) of land at Kakadi village, 11 kms west of Shirdi, and
is
slated to go operational by December 2011.

"We have already acquired 300 ha land in the project

area," the official said, adding,
"The airport will have a single runway which is initially
planned for 2,000 metres in length and eventually going
up to 3,600 mt."
Development of an approach road to the airport site has
also started, the official said.

"The idea is to start with the operation of domestic flight

services and gradually expand the activity to
international services in line with the growth in demand
for such service," the official said.
"The initially planned runway will mainly cater to smaller
aircraft of up to 80-seat capacity and the
final runway extension will enable landing of larger aircraft
like Boeing 737s and 747s."

On an average, 80,000 devotees visit the temple town

each day and the numbers go up to 2.5 to 3 lakh per day
during vacations,
festival season and weekend holidays. A large chunk of
these visitors are non-resident Indians (NRIs), foreigners
as well as celebrities.

As of now, the Aurangabad airport serves as the nearest

airport for devotees planning to travel by air to the temple
town.
While Aurangabad is located 125 kms from Shirdi, cities
like Pune and Mumbai are located some 200km and 325
km from Shirdi, respectively.
Travel by road from these cities to the temple town is
often a costly and time-consuming affairs.

The Ahmednagar district administration sealed the deal for

acquisition of land for the airport project on December 22,
2009
with declaration of compensation awards for land secured
from farmers partly through consent and through
compulsory acquisition process.
Over 65 per cent of the total 700-odd farmers in the
project area gave their consent to the acquisition process.