Mumbai airport project gets exemption from CRZ norms

An important hurdle in getting environmental clearance for Mumbai’s second airport at Navi Mumbai was cleared by the Bombay High Court earlier last week. The high court order enables the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to issue notification exempting construction of the airport from the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) norms.

A senior official from the state government’s urban development ministry said formal clearance from the Union government is expected once the new government is in place at the Centre.

It may be recalled that in January this year, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also holds the portfolio of MoEF, requesting him to grant exemption to the airport project from CRZ regulations.

However, in March this year, the MoEF wrote back to the state government, expressing its inability to grant such an exemption in view of the Bombay High Court order directing the Centre and states to provide protection to mangrove forests in the CRZ zone.

The second airport for Mumbai, being developed by the state government’s town and industrial infrastructure arm CIDCO at Panvel in Navi Mumbai area, is expected to come up on 2,000 hectares of land at an investment of around Rs 10,000 crore.

Subsequently, the state government moved a petition before the Bombay High Court and assured the court to replant the mangroves in other areas. Accepting the state government’s plea, the high court has now passed the order which allows MoEF to grant the exemption. Nearly 800 hectares of mangrove forest is expected to be cut to facilitate construction of the airport.