Clearance to Navi Mumbai airport likely in October

The environment ministry’s clearance for the Navi Mumbai airport is likely to come by the end of October. The bidding process for the project is expected to start by December.

“Navi Mumbai airport is set to get the environment clearance by October-end. If the clearance comes, the bidding process will start in December and the project will be awarded by the middle of next year,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said.

He said the design of the airport would not be changed but the ministry is not against the idea of shifting the non-aeronautical side, which includes the parking area and commercial establishments.

There is a possibility that the non-aeronautical side may not be just outside the airport but on the other side of the road.

The project has already been delayed by over two years. The airport is to be developed in four phases and the work on the first phase was to be started by 2008 and completed by 2012. The fourth phase was planned to be completed by 2028.

The environment ministry had raised three major environmental problems: The diversion of two rivers, unlikely survival of mangroves spread over 400 acres, and the blasting of a hill. The ministry later relented a bit and asked the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra to modify its design so that the proposed airport did not alter the course of two rivers — the Gadhi and Ulwe.

While both Delhi and Mumbai airports were privatised at the same time, the former had managed to expand its annual capacity by 34 million passengers to 60 million. Delhi International Airport Ltd, the GMR-led consortium which operates the airport, managed to increase capacity by building a new terminal, as there was sufficient land available.

In contrast, there are limited possibilities of adding passenger capacity at the existing Mumbai airport, operated by a GVK-led consortium.

The Mumbai airport is expected to exhaust its annual capacity of 40 million passengers by 2013 and a new airport will add 60 million a year.

Meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry has decided to prohibit operations of general aviation turboprop aircraft from the Mumbai airport, except the ones for medical emergencies.