Mumbai, Aug. 10 -- Six months after deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar died in an air crash at Baramati airport in Maharashtra, the state government is finalising a Rs.100-crore overhaul of the small, uncontrolled airstrip. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), which manages smaller airports in the state, cleared the proposal two weeks ago. Additional chief secretary (aviation) Sanjay Sethi cleared it on Wednesday and final approval is awaited from a high-power committee headed by the state chief secretary. Pawar and four others died on January 28 when the chartered Learjet 45 carrying them from Mumbai crashed as the pilot attempted to land. A preliminary probe found the aircraft executed a go-around on its first approach due to poor visibility, then made a second approach during which the pilot reported having the runway in sight but gave no read-back to air traffic control before impact. Sharad Pawar, then chief minister and now head of the opposition Nationalist Congress Party (SP), built the airport in the mid-90s to draw investment to Baramati, the family's home turf. The town turned from a rural backwater into an industrial and educational hub over the decades, but the 1,600m x 30m airstrip remained neglected, used mainly by the Pawars, government officials and businesspersons. The airport is unfenced, with cattle and stray dogs wandering in. Two private flying schools operate from it, and their students staff the air traffic control unit - there are no dedicated ATC personnel. Traffic is light, at 10 to 12 VVIP flights a month, but that is no excuse for the staffing gap. Emergency services are absent. The airport has no fire tender of its own; when Pawar's aircraft crashed, one had to be summoned from the Baramati municipal council, losing precious time. The tender that arrived had no water. The plan funds an ATC tower and a fire station, ending an arrangement in which flying school trainees handled both air traffic control and, effectively, the airport's absent emergency response. The runway will be recarpeted and given a 90-metre runway-end safety area at both ends - a buffer designed to arrest aircraft that overshoot or undershoot on landing. Other upgrades include airstrip grading, storm water drainage, a windsock, edge lights and PAPI lights (Precision Approach Path Indicator), which guide pilots to the correct descent angle. Such visual guidance is critical at an airport without an instrument landing system, where pilots rely on visual cues to judge their descent. An 8-km compound wall and an internal perimeter road are also planned. The plan does not fund an ILS, which would let pilots land using instrument guidance in low visibility rather than visual contact with the runway. It also does not fund a night landing system; flying school students currently install battery-operated lamps for night flying. The airport has no meteorological department and depends on Pune airport for weather news. MADC's plan is silent on this too. Capt Sanjay Karve, former director of civil aviation with the Maharashtra government, said, "The Baramati airport runway has an inverted hump and this must be corrected during recarpetting. PAPI is the easiest and cheapest way to let crew know of glide flow in case of bad weather. DGCA must ask for PAPI for all uncontrolled airports." Karve was sceptical about the political will to see the revamp through. "Upgrading it now is like locking the stable after the horse has bolted. The moment Sunetra Pawar is no longer deputy chief minister, Baramati airport will be forgotten. Take Karad airport, for instance. After Prithviraj Chavan's CM tenure, the project took a back seat. Latur airport was forgotten after Vilasrao Deshmukh ceased to be CM and became a Union minister. Nanded airport took a back seat after Ashok Chavan lost power. In essence, we don't have a long-term plan for aviation." Mihir Bhagvati, president of the Bombay Flying Club, said, "These changes should have been made long ago and implemented at all MADC airports. They are the bare minimum requirements for any airport."...