The wait for the Navi Mumbai airport is all set to get longer than one would have imagined earlier. The ambitious project won’t start off for at least next one year before the IIT, Bombay completes a detailed study on its environmental aspects.
The airport is expected to come up on 2,000 hectares of land near Panvel with an investment of around Rs10,000 crore. The new study by the IIT, Bombay will have international experts in the panel. A senior government official told DNA that one of the terms of reference of the study is about finding ways to neutralise the impact of destruction of the mangroves in the area. The airport site has 150 acres of mangroves.
The project’s fate hangs on the outcome of the study that will be submitted to the environment ministry next year. Facing troubles from the government, the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (CIDCO) has put all the work relating to the project on hold.
On several occasions, civil aviation minister Praful Patel has claimed that Mumbai needs another airport to decongest the present one. But the airport project is in continuous turbulence due to objections from the ministry of environment and forest.
Comments