Solapur to get new airport

A joint venture comprising Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) will develop a greenfield airport in Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s hometown Boramani, in Solapur. The decision was taken on Monday at the MADC’s board meeting chaired by the CM. The Central government has a policy aiming to develop airports in as many district headquarters as possible. Accordingly, airports in Maharashtra (Karad and Solapur) will be developed on a priority basis. Karad is the CM’s hometown. Tanaji Santre, vice-chairman and MD of MADC, explained that a greenfield airport means a totally new airport, while brownfield means development or expansion of existing airport. “The Boramani airport will be developed by forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in the form of joint venture company (JVC). The decision of formulating the JVC was taken by board of directors on Monday,” he said. The AAI will have a 51 per cent stake in the JVC, while MADC will have 49 per cent. The Boramani airport is expected to cost `250 crore. AAI will use `125 crore as its stake from its source. The present valuation of the land at Boramani and the amount required for rehabilitation of project-affected persons will be treated as MADC’s share on the state government’s behalf. According to an MADC official, 549.34 hectares of government land has been acquired by the revenue department of Solapur district. Of that, 107.60 hectares were found to be reserved forestland. Mr Santre said, “The issue will be sorted out by notifying it as deforested land. However, the state will have to declare 107 hectares land somewhere else in the state as forest land.” It was also decided that till it becomes operational, the AAI will keep the existing Hotgi airport in Solapur fully operational. After Boramani airport becomes operational, the Hotgi airport will be commercially exploited by the JVC. “`50 crore will be kept as corpus fund for maintenance of the greenfield Boramani airport and rest of the amount from commercial use of Hotgi airport will be utilised for development of other airports in the state,” said the official.