The tender for Pune’s proposed Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje International Airport at Purandar will be floated soon, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told The Times of India, as the district administration moves to take possession of land acquired for the greenfield project.
Fadnavis said the land acquisition process had been completed swiftly by the collector and the district administration. “The process of land acquisition has been completed very swiftly by the collector and district administration. Further process of taking over possession is now underway,” he said.
The proposed Purandar airport requires 1,216 hectares of land. According to the district administration, around 973 hectares have been acquired so far, putting the acquisition progress at approximately 80%. The remaining requirement is about 243 hectares, based on the figures provided by the administration.
The latest development shifts the project’s immediate focus from securing land to completing the possession process and preparing for tendering. Acquisition and possession are separate administrative stages: while acquisition establishes the government’s control over the land under the applicable process, possession enables the project authorities to take physical control and proceed with subsequent implementation work.
Fadnavis had earlier said that work on the airport would commence in December. However, the administration has not provided a clear date for floating the tender or appointing the agency that will execute the project. A land acquisition official told The Times of India that there was no confirmed timeline yet for either step.
The distinction between an announced tender and an issued tender remains significant for the project. A tender notice would formally open the process of selecting an agency for execution, while the appointment of that agency would establish the next institutional milestone for construction-related work. Until those steps are completed, the project remains in the transition phase between land preparation and implementation.
For Pune, the airport proposal is tied to the creation of new aviation infrastructure outside the existing urban area. The current update therefore concerns not only the progress of land acquisition but also the administrative sequence required before construction can begin: taking possession of acquired parcels, finalising the tender process and appointing the executing agency.
The chief minister said the overall process was progressing smoothly. The next confirmed milestones are the completion of possession procedures and the release of the airport tender, but the district administration has not yet specified when either will be completed.
