Navi Mumbai airport snippets

Against its annual capacity of 20 million passengers, Mumbai airport currently handles over 26 million passengers, and the city desperately needs a second airport. The proposed Navi Mumbai airport, meant to provide the solution, is stuck as the Union environment ministry is yet to clear the project. According to the plan, after completion of Phase IV in 2028, Navi Mumbai airport will handle 40 million passengers. CM Ashok Chavan is now expected to personally call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his intervention with Jairam Ramesh’s MOEF, for immediate clearance of the proposal. A well-placed MOEF source said the Maharashtra government had sent an incomplete environmental impact assessment report (mandatory submission for a clearance) only on June 24. The ministry had already written to the state asking for clarifications on the report, which missed out important issues about coastal regulations. The project intends to divert two rivers and remove 400 hectares of mangroves which would have substantial ecological impact. “The ministry is yet to hear a response from the state government. Surely, the ministry cannot be expected to analyse and decide on a project in merely eight days,’’ the source said. “We have submitted the entire information to the MOEF. We have given a comprehensive action plan for implementing the recommendations made by the MOEF. We are surprised why the MOEF is not granting permission. Now the CM has no option but to knock on the doors of the PMO,’’ a senior state official said. The MOEF had asked the state government to complete the environmental impact assessment report from an institute of national or international repute. “We had engaged IIT Mumbai for the task. They have submitted their report. All objections and suggestions received by the government were personally heard by the district collector,’’ he said. “We promised to give double the land of the area of mangroves, the agency (Cidco) has been fixed for the job. We have given a time-bound action plan to implement the EIA as well as the observations of the MOEF. Despite this, there is no response from the Centre.’’