PUNE Over the past few months, Lohegaon airport has witnessed major disturbances in the take-off and landing of flights due to birds flocking/flying around the runway. So much so, that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials from Pune airport have complained to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) about birds flocking over drainage water around the airport and disturbing flight movement.
And after a joint inspection carried out by PMC and AAI officials for the purpose of passenger safety, the PMC has started the work of installing a 900-metre-long drainage pipeline for water flowing from areas near Lohegaon into the pits near the runway. In the absence of a drainage pipeline, water is getting saturated in these open pits with birds flying over it and many a time, blocking flights.
Kunal Khemnar, PMC additional commissioner, said, “We have started the installation work of a 900 metre drainage pipeline with a 12mm diameter. Some parts in Lohegaon have been recently added under the PMC’s jurisdiction and there is no proper system to channelise the drainage and wastewater yet. This water is gathering in the pits and birds are hovering over it due to which there is disturbance and risk to flight operations. After the joint inspection with AAI officials, we immediately started the pipeline installation work.”
