<p>The green signal was given after the Environment Ministry and the project developers agreed on a set of compromises to realise Mumbai’s second airport in five years.<br /><br />Four major bottlenecks before the Rs 8,722-crore project were diversion of a river (Gadhi) and a tidally-influenced water body (Ulwe), destruction of a section of a mangrove zone, which acts as a buffer for Mumbai city, and razing a 90-metre hillock that comes in the way of the flight path.<br /><br />As part of the compromise, the Gadhi will not be diverted but Ulwe has to be recoursed after taking steps to minimise the ecological damage. The hillock and a portion of mangrove forest will be destroyed. <br /><br />However, the project developer, City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), has promised to create a new mangrove park. Also, the construction can start only after CIDCO rehabilitates 3,000 families from seven villages within the airport zone. <br /><br />Announcing the developments here in the presence of Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said his government would approach the Environment Ministry as well as the Mumbai High Court next week seeking forest clearance and approval for cutting down the mangroves, respectively.<br /><br />“As many as 17 alternate sites were examined for the second airport. Surveys were conducted by the civil aviation, defence and environment authorities. Only then will we finalise Navi Mumbai. The airport will be completed in four phases,” he said. <br /><br />The process to set up a second international airport at Mumbai began in 1997 because of the growing air traffic to the “Maximum City.” The proposal received the Union Cabinet’s approval in July 2007 and permissions under the Coastal Regulatory Zone Act on May 15, 2009—just one month before Ramesh was appointed the environment minister. <br /><br />The minister revisited the issue to discover serious violation of green norms and locked horns with the civil aviation ministry. “We bargained, negotiated and compromised. Its good to start in a dogmatic manner,” Ramesh said.<br /><br />Facilities shifted<br /><br />CIDCO agreed to shift the project’s non-essential airport facilities like hotels and sauna restaurants to a different location in order to save the mangroves. The distance between the runways is being reduced from 1,800 metres to 1,555 metres to avoid diversion of the Gadhi river. Contingency plan will also be put in place to avoid flooding of the area.<br />“The new airport will be constructed in accordance with international guidelines. The first phase (costing Rs 4,424 crore) will be completed by 2014-15. It will lead to the creation of 25,000 direct and a same number of indirect jobs in the first phase,” Patel said.<br /><br />Pros and cons of project<br /><br />* It will ease pressure on Mumbai airport to handle busy international air traffic<br />* Present airport can handle at most 30 take offs and landings per hour <br />* The Navi Mumbai airport will create capacity of 60 million passengers per year<br />* By 2030 the new airport would have a much higher handling capacity<br />* Environmentalists say low flying aircraft could have adverse impact on the Karnala bird sanctuary<br />* Elephanta caves and Matheran Hill station which are in the vicinity of the proposed airport will also be affected<br />* The Ulwe river diversion will adversely affect mangrove forest</p>
<p>The green signal was given after the Environment Ministry and the project developers agreed on a set of compromises to realise Mumbai’s second airport in five years.<br /><br />Four major bottlenecks before the Rs 8,722-crore project were diversion of a river (Gadhi) and a tidally-influenced water body (Ulwe), destruction of a section of a mangrove zone, which acts as a buffer for Mumbai city, and razing a 90-metre hillock that comes in the way of the flight path.<br /><br />As part of the compromise, the Gadhi will not be diverted but Ulwe has to be recoursed after taking steps to minimise the ecological damage. The hillock and a portion of mangrove forest will be destroyed. <br /><br />However, the project developer, City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), has promised to create a new mangrove park. Also, the construction can start only after CIDCO rehabilitates 3,000 families from seven villages within the airport zone. <br /><br />Announcing the developments here in the presence of Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said his government would approach the Environment Ministry as well as the Mumbai High Court next week seeking forest clearance and approval for cutting down the mangroves, respectively.<br /><br />“As many as 17 alternate sites were examined for the second airport. Surveys were conducted by the civil aviation, defence and environment authorities. Only then will we finalise Navi Mumbai. The airport will be completed in four phases,” he said. <br /><br />The process to set up a second international airport at Mumbai began in 1997 because of the growing air traffic to the “Maximum City.” The proposal received the Union Cabinet’s approval in July 2007 and permissions under the Coastal Regulatory Zone Act on May 15, 2009—just one month before Ramesh was appointed the environment minister. <br /><br />The minister revisited the issue to discover serious violation of green norms and locked horns with the civil aviation ministry. “We bargained, negotiated and compromised. Its good to start in a dogmatic manner,” Ramesh said.<br /><br />Facilities shifted<br /><br />CIDCO agreed to shift the project’s non-essential airport facilities like hotels and sauna restaurants to a different location in order to save the mangroves. The distance between the runways is being reduced from 1,800 metres to 1,555 metres to avoid diversion of the Gadhi river. Contingency plan will also be put in place to avoid flooding of the area.<br />“The new airport will be constructed in accordance with international guidelines. The first phase (costing Rs 4,424 crore) will be completed by 2014-15. It will lead to the creation of 25,000 direct and a same number of indirect jobs in the first phase,” Patel said.<br /><br />Pros and cons of project<br /><br />* It will ease pressure on Mumbai airport to handle busy international air traffic<br />* Present airport can handle at most 30 take offs and landings per hour <br />* The Navi Mumbai airport will create capacity of 60 million passengers per year<br />* By 2030 the new airport would have a much higher handling capacity<br />* Environmentalists say low flying aircraft could have adverse impact on the Karnala bird sanctuary<br />* Elephanta caves and Matheran Hill station which are in the vicinity of the proposed airport will also be affected<br />* The Ulwe river diversion will adversely affect mangrove forest</p>
