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Mumbai gets its second airport at Navi Mumbai
After a year-long tussle between the Civil Aviation and Environment ministries, the Navi Mumbai airport finally got the green signal on Monday but with riders about the resettlement of displaced people and development of mangroves around the site.
"Today, the environmental clearance has formally been given to the Navi Mumbai Project. The provisions of building the airport will start from today," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.
The announcement was made at a joint press meet with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel with whom Ramesh had differences over the Rs 8,722 crore project.
The clearance was given on conditions that 678 hectares of mangroves will be developed in and around the project site, the river Gadhi will not be diverted besides 30 other riders which have to be impelemented to minimise environmental impacts.
However, a 90-metre high hillock will have to be removed to smoothen the approach to runway and the "tidally influenced waterbody" Ulwe will be recoursed. "A number of safeguards will have to be implemented to ensure the environmental impact is kept to the minimum," Ramesh said.
With the environment clearance in place, both Chavan and Patel said that the bidding process for the development of the airport will be completed and contracts will be awarded within eight to twelve months.
The chief minister said around 3,000 families will have to be relocated and expeditious steps were being taken to rehabilitate them.
The Prime Minister's Office has been closely monitoring the progress in building the second airport as the existing Mumbai airport, where additional flights are now being restricted due to saturation, is likely to exhaust its capacity of handling 40 million passengers a year by 2013.
The Navi Mumbai international project will be developed through public-private-participation mode in which the private party will hold 74 per cent, and state-owned City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) will have 13 per cent stake each.
Mumbai gets its second airport at Navi Mumbai
After a year-long tussle between the Civil Aviation and Environment ministries, the Navi Mumbai airport finally got the green signal on Monday but with riders about the resettlement of displaced people and development of mangroves around the site.
"Today, the environmental clearance has formally been given to the Navi Mumbai Project. The provisions of building the airport will start from today," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.
The announcement was made at a joint press meet with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel with whom Ramesh had differences over the Rs 8,722 crore project.
The clearance was given on conditions that 678 hectares of mangroves will be developed in and around the project site, the river Gadhi will not be diverted besides 30 other riders which have to be impelemented to minimise environmental impacts.
However, a 90-metre high hillock will have to be removed to smoothen the approach to runway and the "tidally influenced waterbody" Ulwe will be recoursed. "A number of safeguards will have to be implemented to ensure the environmental impact is kept to the minimum," Ramesh said.
With the environment clearance in place, both Chavan and Patel said that the bidding process for the development of the airport will be completed and contracts will be awarded within eight to twelve months.
The chief minister said around 3,000 families will have to be relocated and expeditious steps were being taken to rehabilitate them.
The Prime Minister's Office has been closely monitoring the progress in building the second airport as the existing Mumbai airport, where additional flights are now being restricted due to saturation, is likely to exhaust its capacity of handling 40 million passengers a year by 2013.
The Navi Mumbai international project will be developed through public-private-participation mode in which the private party will hold 74 per cent, and state-owned City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) will have 13 per cent stake each.
Mumbai gets its second airport at Navi Mumbai
