Shirdi airport to operate night flights, boost temple tourism

Published on : Monday, August 16, 2021

In a boost to temple tourism, the Shirdi airport will now be able to land bigger planes.

The over 350-hectare airport is located at Kakadi in Kopargaon, which is 14-km from Shirdi. The airport will soon be able to carry out flight operations at night. Work on a new passenger terminal to handle rising footfalls and a cargo terminal, which will increase exports of horticultural produce like flowers and fruits from the region to locations across India, will also begin at the facility.

It has surpassed airports like Aurangabad, Nanded, Nashik and Kolhapur in terms of passenger load and is the fourth busiest airport in Maharashtra after Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. On March 22 last year, two days before the nationwide Covid-pandemic induced lockdown was imposed, a total of 26 flights (13 each of landings and departures) were recorded at Shirdi, with around 20,000 to 25,000 people coming in daily. “The 2,500-meter runway was unable to accommodate bigger planes… These aircraft need a larger flight run for a take-off and must cover a certain distance after landing before they come to a halt. When the flight operations at the airport were stopped (after the lockdown was imposed), we utilised the opportunity to extend the runway length from 2,500m to 3,200m,” said Deepak Kapoor, vice-chairman and managing director, Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC). The extended runway was tested and completed recently.

Kapoor said this would allow large aircraft to land and lead to airlines ferrying more pilgrims to the temple town in a plane.

The MADC has installed and tested night-landing infrastructure at the airport. It has written to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which is mandated with installing the necessary weather instrumentation for the purpose. The IMD has instructed its western region office to undertake the work. Once it is completed, night landing can be launched at the airport. This will enable pilgrims to attend the kakad aarti (the aarti performed at the crack of dawn) in Sai Baba temple without coming there a day earlier. While the runway extension and taxiways cost around ₹41 crore, the night landing infrastructure with CAT-1 lights and other equipment cost ₹9.85 crore.

The present terminal building can handle 10,000 to 12,000 passengers daily, and the MADC is planning a new passenger terminal that can cater to around 20,000 to 25,000 passengers per day. It has sought ₹230 crore from the state for the new terminal building. The capacity expansion will ensure the airport can handle around 35,000 passengers.

Kapoor added the Government of India had permitted cargo operations from the airport and in the pre-Covid period, they exported 250kg flowers to Delhi and 400 kg of fruits like pomegranates and grapes to Chennai and Bengaluru.

“This will create an additional source of revenue for farmers… There is a lot of horticulture and floriculture around Shirdi. Based on a market survey, we realised that there is a huge demand for marigold and rose flowers in Chennai and Delhi. The farmers had to transport these flowers to Nashik, which affected the quality due to the low shelf-life and consequently, the prices,” he said.

The MADC also plans to construct a separate cargo terminal to ensure seamless cargo operations and has appointed a consultant, who will submit a report in around two months.

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