The Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Monday commenced the Obstacles Limitation Surface (OLS) survey of Pune Airport with a special team from Delhi arriving to conduct it.
As per the AAI, the survey work is expected to last for at least ten days. Later, a report will be submitted to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and after getting the approval, the work of extending the runway will commence.
An AAI official told HT, "At present, the length of the runway is 2,535 metres (8,316 feet) and the width is 45 metres. Whereas 500 metres of space is required on the east side and 300 metres on the west side of the runway. If the runway is extended by about 800 metres, the total length will be about 10,940 feet."
"If the length is about 11,000 feet, then in the future even big flights will be able to land at Pune Airport. For this, an expenditure of around ₹160 crore is expected on the acquisition of the site,” the official added.
For the runway expansion project, Murlidhar Mohol, the newly appointed Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) from Pune, earlier said 35 acres of land is needed. "Remuneration for this land needs to be given to the landowners for which we have finalised a formula. The formula is that 60% of the amount will be given by the Maharashtra government, 20% by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), and 10% each by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA)," he said.
What is an OLS survey?
An OLS survey is conducted to identify and map obstacles around an airport, ensuring safe aircraft operations and regulatory compliance. This survey produces detailed maps of protected airspace, preventing interference with takeoff, landing, and manoeuvring. It is especially important for accommodating widebody aircraft, which have larger fuel tanks enabling direct flights to continents like Europe and North America.
