Environment ministry shows green to Navi Mumbai airport

NEW DELHI: The contention over the Navi Mumbai airport seems to eroding as an environment panel approved a revised proposal for the airport in Navi Mumbai submitted by its developer, the state government-owned City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO).
“The expert appraisal committee (EAC) has endorsed the project subject to conditions like shifting the non-aeronautical side of the airport to the other side and planting mangroves in lieu of whatever would be destroyed,” a spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Ministry said. The committee will soon submit its report to Union Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh who will have the final say on the issue.
The environment and civil aviation ministries have been at loggerheads over the airport project for a considerable period of time now. However, with both the ministries reaching a compromise formula late last month on an array of environmental issues, the project, which aims at meeting the increasing air traffic needs of the financial hub of the country, is set to take off soon.
As desired by the green panel, CIDCO has agreed that the airport site would not be changed, although the location of non-aeronautical activities like hotels and shops will be shifted. This would be done to ensure that there is minimum damage to the 400 acres of mangroves and some hillocks in the area and to ensure that the two rivers — the Ulwe and the Gadhi — are not diverted.
CIDCO has also agreed to reduce the distance between two runways from 1,835 metres to 1,500 metres, which would ensure that there will be no diversion of Gadhi river and the impact on the Ulwe river will be minimised. The Ulwe will flow beneath the airport site as proposed by CIDCO. The body has also agreed to develop a mangrove park in around 275 hectares to compensate the loss due to the proposed airport.
The project was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2007 as the need for a second airport to manage the city’s escalating air traffic was perceived. It was also felt that the existing Mumbai airport, where additional flights are now being restricted due to saturation, cannot be expanded beyond a point. It will be able to handle 40 million passengers a year by 2013, but cannot handle more as it is situated in the middle of the city.