Central teams to inspect Navi Mumbai airport site

After days of hard posturing and war of words involving central ministries, there’s finally some movement on the Navi Mumbai airport front. A team of Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials is scheduled to examine the site on Saturday.

Separately, representatives of the expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the ministry of environment and forests are also slated to examine the site over the weekend. The location of the project has been sore point between the civil aviation ministry and environment ministry.

A dialogue between Praful Patel and Jairam Ramesh, who head the respective ministries, last week seems to have led to a thaw. Both the ministers are believed to have okayed the airport site provided the Maharashtra government and the ministry of civil aviation abide by the guidelines issued by the EAC.

One of the EAC directives says that there should be no alteration in the path of river Gadi. It has, however, allowed alterations in the second river, Urvi. Secondly, the environment ministry has sought a detailed map of the area, on a scale of 1:4000, to examine the site more carefully.

The main objections of the EAC have been diversion of the two rivers, blasting of a hill at the site and resultant destruction of about 400 acres of mangroves. With these issues sorted out, the airport site is likely to finally get a go-ahead. Earlier, a team comprising top officials of CIDCO and Maharashtra’s urban development ministry had told the EAC that that there was no better alternative for the airport.