New Delhi, October 01: President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate the newly-built Shirdi airport in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district on Sunday. The opening ceremony will take place at 10 AM in the presence of top dignitaries including Governor C. V. Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other top Central and state government officials.
The airport has been developed by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) in Rahata sub-district, around 240 kms north-west of Mumbai, at a cost of nearly Rs 350 crore. Reportedly a portion of the investment for the airport, nearly Rs 50 crore, was contributed by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST), which is among the richest religious bodies in the country.
Here’s all you need to know about the new airport:
- With an aim to promote religious tourism, the airport was sanctioned in 2010.
- The airport is capable of handling single narrow-body aircraft, such as Airbus A320 and Boeing 737s with a 2,500 meter long runway.
- With this airport, the travel time between Mumbai and Shirdi (The famous temple town housing the ‘samadhi’ of Sai Baba), which takes around five hours, would be slashed to 45 minutes.
- The airport has a 2,750 square meter terminal building and a hangar for parking four aircraft.
- The airport will be equipped with the night landing facility in upcoming months.
- The airport which is spread across 400 hectares, will see four flights to Mumbai (one each from Delhi and Hyderabad).
- Apart from Alliance Air, TruJet, it has been reported that regional airline Zoom Air will also be operating flights between Mumbai and Shirdi.
