30.10.13

Navi Mumbai Airport update

In a major boost for the proposed Navi Mumbai airport, the Bombay high court gave its go ahead to Cidco’s request to be able to clear mangroves for the greenfield project.
Hearing an application filed by Cidco, a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha approved the agency’s plans to also create mangrove plots in another area in lieu of the mangroves that will be destroyed for the airport.
With the HC nod in place, Cidco has managed to obtain the last of the environmental clearances for the project. Environmentalists, however, plan to challenge the approvals before the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.
“The project will see the destruction of over 400 acres of mangroves and around 1,000 acres of mudflats,” said Debi Goenka, who was part of the PIL by the Bombay Environmental Action Group that resulted in the landmark HC order banning destruction of mangroves and dumping of debris on mangrove plots.
Advocate Rui Rodrigues, counsel for the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), told the high court that the project had received a conditional environmental and forest clearance. The project had also got clearance from the National Board of Wildlife.
The MoEF’s conditions for the project include rehabilitation of mangroves and a plan to mitigate the impact of the project on the avian fauna. MoEF had also said that no future proposal by Cidco for extension of the airport would be considered in the area between the present approved boundaries and the Karnala sanctuary, which is at a distance of 9.5 km from the proposed airport.
The airport is coming up on 1,405 hectares of land in Navi Mumbai. Cidco has received approval for diverting 250 hectares of forestland. Its plan includes regeneration of mangroves at 310 hectares of land at Kamothe and 60 hectares at Moha Creek, in addition to a mangrove park at Waghivali Island.
According to Goenka, the project would have a disastrous impact on the Matheran Ecosensitive Zone and Elephanta Caves, which fall in the airport’s landing and take-off alignment. “The Cidco proposal initially did not disclose that forest land would be affected and wrongly mentioned that Karnala sanctuary was 10 km away from the proposed airport. Giving wrong data alone should have been grounds enough for cancelling the permission,” said Goenka.

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