Of 27 airports in state, only four are fully operational

While the state is planning new airports, the existing ones are either defunct or dawdling on its work. The work of an airport in Sindhudurg district has been inordinately delayed while another one in Nanded has no flights.

There are 27 airports in Maharashtra of which only four, namely Mumbai, Aurangabad, Pune and Nagpur are fully operational and running commercial services. The airport at Ambly Valley city is private. Baramati, Nanded, Osmanabad, Latur and Yeotmal are operated by Reliance, Mumbai is operated by GVK, and Sindhudurg is operated by IRB infrastructure.

Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation holds ownership of Amravati, Chandrapur, Dhule, Karad, Nagpur, Phaltan, Shirdi and Solapur, whereas the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has control over Nashik, Kolhapur, Kalyan, Jalgaon, Gondia, Aurangabad and Akola. Ozar in Nashik, Pune and Ratnagiri are under the control of the military. Despite having night landing facilities at Nanded and Gondia, both airports are idle and used only when political leaders arrive.

Gondia was developed when NCP leader Praful Patel was the civil aviation minister in Dr Manmohan Singh’s UPA government, whereas the Nanded airport was developed as it’s former chief minister Ashok Chavan’s hometown. Mr Chavan said Nanded airport would have been profitable if 78-seater ATR planes are operated from there. Nanded has a Gurudwara and thousands of pilgrims come to visit the Gurudwara every year.

Work on the Chipi airport in Sindhudurg district has been sluggish. The civil aviation ministry claims that as the nearest international airport in Goa is far too close to Chipi, it could not be viable.