Pune District Plans Dialogue with Villagers Over Airport Land Dispute

19 May 2025 CW Team

The Pune district administration will hold talks next week with villagers opposing land acquisition for the new airport project. This follows clashes earlier this month that postponed a drone survey for land assessment across seven villages: Kumbharvalan, Pargaon, Khanwadi, Ekhatpur, Munjwadi, Udachiwadi, and Vapuri.

The meeting, arranged under State Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s direction, aims to address villagers’ concerns and find a way forward. The minister met protesting farmers and urged them to reconsider, promising the best possible land deal. He reaffirmed that the airport’s development is a final policy decision but expressed willingness to review compensation packages.

Bawankule acknowledged misinformation about compensation on social media had caused confusion. He assured the government’s offer would be transparent and fair, hoping to win villagers’ support. The administration emphasised openness to suggestions and direct dialogue to resolve the deadlock and promote development in the region.

The outcome of these talks will be crucial for the airport’s progress and economic growth in Pune.

Source:UrbanPost

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..