After the approval, Cidco will present rehabilitation plan to the environment ministry
The final approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) for the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) is expected to come this week.
"After this clearance from the MoEF, there will not be any more sanctions left from this ministry," said a senior official from City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco).
Called Stage II Clearance, the approval involves a review of Stage I Clearance accorded earlier. Plans for compensatory forestation, river diversion, mangrove plantation, etc, were cleared under the Stage-I nod.
Once the Stage-I compliances are met with, the next stage is to present a rehabilitation plan by Cidco to MoEF.
A week ago, the Cidco had awarded two contracts for pre-development works. The work involved land leveling for the construction of the airport and cutting of Ulwe Hill (80 metres) to fill the marshy land. Contracts worth Rs 398 crore and Rs 700 crore was awarded to Supreme Infrastructure and Gayatri Projects respectively. An area of 1,160 hectare (2,800 acre) will be leveled for the construction of the airport.
Apart from these two pre-development works, the balance two are shifting of high tension power lines and diversion of a river. The process is underway to award tenders for these two works. The high tension cables will now go underground and gradually diversion the course of Ulwe river will be a longer process.
After the 2005 deluge, concerns were raised about the location of the airport due to reclamation of low lying areas, diversion of the river among other issues. After having made changes to the design, the airport plan received nod from MoEF.
Once the pre-development work is done, construction of the airport is scheduled to commence from late 2016 and the first phase is expected to be opened for the passengers by the last quarter of 2019.
As per the project plans, in the first year, the airport will cater to 10 million passengers and the airport's capacity would be gradually increased to handle 60 million passengers annually. Despite the recent overhaul, the existing Mumbai airport's capacity is almost saturated with 40 million passengers every year.
About 3,500 residents who will be displaced by the Navi Mumbai airport have been provided with three alternative compensation packages.
In 2014, the Cidco had approved commencement of the bidding process for the Navi Mumbai airport by inviting the request for qualification bids. This airport will be developed through public-private partnership financial model, wherein Cidco will have a 26% stake, while the rest will be held by the private developer. The cost of the project has been estimated at Rs 16,000 crore, which is close to fourfold increase since 1998, when it was projected to be at Rs 4,766 crore.
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