Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) plans to upgrade Shirdi Airport with a night landing facility and cargo and passenger terminals.
The Shirdi airport will now be able to land larger planes. The airport will shortly be able to conduct flight operations at night.
MADC will soon begin developing a new passenger terminal to manage increasing footfalls and a cargo terminal, which will enhance exports of horticultural produce like fruits and flowers from Shirdi to locations all over India.
The over 350 hectare airport at Kakadi in Kopargaon is 14 km from Shirdi. It has exceeded airports like Nanded, Aurangabad, Nashik and Kolhapur in terms of passenger load and is the fourth busiest airport in Maharashtra after Pune, Nagpur and Mumbai.
On 22 March 2020, two days before the imposition of nationwide Covid-19 induced lockdown, a total of 26 flights (13 each of landings and departures) were reported at Shirdi, with about 20,000 to 25,000 people coming in every day.
Deepak Kapoor, the vice-chairman and managing director, Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC), told the media that the 2,500-meter runway was not able to accommodate bigger planes.
The aircraft requires a larger flight run for take-off and must cover a specific distance after landing before they stop. When the flight services at the airport stopped due to the lockdown, they used the opportunity to increase the runway length from 2,500 m to 3,200 m. The extended runway was tested and developed recently.
Kapoor said this would enable large aircraft to land and lead to airlines carrying more pilgrims to the temple town in a plane.
The MADC has established and tested night-landing infrastructure at the airport. It has been written to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which is mandated with establishing the required weather instrumentation for the purpose.
The IMD has directed its western region office to begin the work. Once it completes, a night landing facility can begin at the airport. It will allow pilgrims to attend the kakad aarti (the aarti performed at the crack of dawn) in Sai Baba temple without coming there a day before. While the runway expansion and taxiways cost about Rs 41 crore, the night landing infrastructure with CAT-1 lights and other equipment costs Rs 9.85 crore.
The existing terminal building can manage 10,000 to 12,000 passengers daily, and the MADC aims to develop a new passenger terminal that can cater to about 20,000 to 25,000 passengers every day. It has asked for Rs 230 crore from the state for the new terminal building. The capacity increase will guarantee that the airport can manage about 35,000 passengers.
Additionally, Kapoor said that the centre had approved cargo operations from the airport and, in the pre-Covid time, they shipped 250 kg flowers to Delhi and 400 kg of fruits like pomegranates and grapes to Chennai and Bengaluru.
MADC is planning to build a separate cargo terminal to guarantee seamless cargo operations and has appointed a consultant, who will present a report in about two months.
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