All environmental concerns cannot be addressed: Ashok Chavan

Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan has emphasised the inevitability of the proposed site as the only option for the Navi Mumbai airport.

“This is the only site that is available, and the land has been acquired. Frankly, there is no alternative site available. So, we are prepared to do all that is possible to address the environmental concerns,” he said here today in a media interaction.

“The next step is the visit of the environment advisory committee, and we shall take it forward from that. But we are also aware that all the concerns of the environmentalists cannot be addressed. This is not feasible,” he added, hinting that some sort of compromise would have to be worked out.

Even as he remained optimistic about getting the nod for the proposed new airport site, specially after his meetings with prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier this month, Chavan conceded that the state government has not been able to respond to all the issues that have been raised by the environment ministry. “We have responded, but some issues remain,” he said.

Chavan, however, dismissed all suggestions of any personal dimension to the tangle that had delayed the environment ministry’s nod for this all-important infrastructure project. “We are aware that there is nothing personal with the union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in this matter, and the issue is being discussed in the light of the factual position with regard to the site,” he said.

The chief minister was also quick to appreciate Ramesh’s decision to relax the CRZ norms for the re-development of slums in Mumbai and also lauded the conditionalities that have been stipulated in the process. “This is a good decision in the interest of people living in areas like koliwadas where the old and dilapidated buildings are posing a threat,” he observed.

“There is nothing wrong if the stipulation is that some state government agency should have a majority stake in the proposed buildings that shall come up in these areas. The Mhada is already entering into such private-public partnerships,” he said.