Final decision on new airport likely by Nov 10: Ramesh

A final decision on the proposed Navi Mumbai Airport is still pending a nod by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the environment ministry, but, from all indications, the project has cleared all hurdles.

Speaking to the media after meeting civil aviation minister Praful Patel in his office on Tuesday, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, “We made good progress. The EAC will be meeting on November 9 and 10 to have a final look at the compromises being worked out by both sides on the project.”

Patel also seemed relaxed after the meeting, and indicated that all hurdles had been cleared. Issues such as the diversion of the Gadi river and blasting of a hillock and have already been amicably settled. Now, only the matter of diversion of the Ulve river needs to be sorted out, Ramesh said.

Terming the meeting as ‘very constructive’, Patel said, “a lot of progress has been made because of the proactive approach taken by both sides...”. This is a far cry from the acrimony surrounding this project even a month back, when both sides had come out with conflicting statements on the delay in approving this project.

The airport project was approved by the union cabinet in 2007, but has been stuck as the ministry of environment and forests raised objections over environmental concerns. Alternate sites — Kalyan, Wada etc — were also discussed, but subsequently rejected.

Ramesh acknowledged strategic reasons for rejecting Kalyan, and said Wada was nearly 100km away from Mumbai, hence building the second airport there was not feasible. Ramesh made it clear on Tuesday that the Navi Mumbai site had been found the most suitable for the airport.