Air Commodore Ajit Vaidya, Air Officer Commanding, Lohegaon Air Force Station told mediapersons that these vehicles will now be routed via the alternative road from 509 junction-Tingre Nagar-Dhanori-Lohegaon. PMT buses, however, will be allowed to ply on this route until the alternative roads have been sufficiently widened and repaired. Air Commodore Vaidya said that said they have already communicated a time-bound schedule to close some of the Air Force roads to civilian traffic in wake of the potential security threat to the national assets located within.

Expressing grave concern over the ``enhanced threat perception,'' Air Commodore revealed that the authorities had caught a Bangladeshi national moving around the Air Force station in a suspicious manner around 2.30 am on Saturday. The 22-year-old person identified himself as Biswajeet Mohajan who was studying at a college in Hadapsar and maintained that his father was a businessman in Calcutta. ``There have been six cases of trespassing in the last 10 months. We have caught 11 people entering into restricted areas in the station. All cases have been handed over to the Intelligence Bureau (IB),'' he said.

The Air Force station recently carried out an aerial as well as ground survey to take stock of the situation and the findings were quite shocking. Traffic on the Lohegaon-Yerawada Road is increasing in density as it is used by the population of Lohegaon and villages beyond Khese Park, Culvert-Wasti, Puru Society and Sanjay Colony and other colonies from 509 to Vishrantwadi and by those transiting to the civil airport. Further with the development of new residential colonies, traffic has also begun to increase towards Wagholi, Wadgaon Shinde and even Ahmednagar as this road provides a convenient short cut, senior officers explained. The Khulewadi population also freely uses the Air Force Road for approach to and from Nagar Road despite the existence of an alternative road built for them. It may be mentioned here that the Air Force authorities had deferred their decision to close the Air Force Road to civil traffic for six months from February 25, 1999 on the request of various civic authorities and the PMT.The decision was taken in the light of the non-completion of the alternative road connecting Lohegaon with Dhanori, for which the Air Force contributed Rs. 12.5 lakh.

The problem, according to Air Commodore Vaidya, lay in the inability of the authorities to patrol the 24 kilometre stretch and the absence of a wall. This requires massive investment and such money was always invested in modernisation of equipment. As a result, the fences were pulled down at places. This time, however, the authorities refuse to take any chances. A proposal has been sent to the headquarters for erecting a wall demarcating the station from the civil area at an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore.