Pune Airport to Resume its Operations from Today, Was Closed for 14 Days

The Pune airport reopened for business today after being closed for civilian operations for the past 14 days. The Pune airport was shut closed from October 16 to October 29 as resurfacing work for a runway was in process. The officials are claiming that MES or Military Engineering Services have pulled off this resurfacing task in a record 14-day time as compared to 28-35 normal working days. The flights were resumed today on October 30th.

Why the Resurfacing was Required?

The runway operations in the country are overseen by the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF said in a statement that the condition of the runway and associated working surface at the Air Force Station at Pune was getting worse each passing day and resurfacing had become a necessity. As informed by the IAF the previous plan for a 14-day closure of the Airport was scheduled from April 26th to May 9th of this year to undertake the resurfacing of the central bitumen portion of the runway. However, this plan was postponed on the instruction of the Ministry of Defence as there was an urgent requirement to transport Covid-19 vaccines. According to the statement, the plan to close the airport from October 16th to October 29th could only go on floors after the obligatory approvals were obtained from the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Ministry of Defence. The plan was to resume the operations at the airport on October 30th just before the beginning of awaited Diwali festival. Hence the work of resurfacing was scheduled for the third and fourth week of October 2021.