Navi Mumbai airport impasse: Ramesh, Patel hold talks

The row over the need for a second airport at Mumbai and its environment cost may finally come to an end with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel holding consultations on the matter.

However, sources said there was no question of changing the site of the proposed greenfield airport at Navi Mumbai, though the Civil Aviation Ministry was open to suggestions on taking care of the environmental concerns.

Patel and Ramesh had a one-on-one meeting here yesterday to find a way out of the impasse, in the backdrop of concerns that the existing Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport had reached the saturation point and no additional flights would be permitted to operate from there.

Their meeting came in the backdrop of Patel informing Lok Sabha that he and Ramesh would work closely to address the problems in the way of getting environmental clearance for the Navi Mumbai airport project, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet in May 2007.

It is understood that the Civil Aviation Ministry would ensure that the design of the airport should be finalised in such a manner that there is minimum damage to the mangroves there which are spread over 400 acres.

As per the original design, the airport would have two runways, the land for which was available only at the Navi Mumbai site. An alternative site at Kalyan was earlier rejected on grounds of security.

The Patel-Ramesh meeting came after a virtual spat between the two Ministers, with the former stressing the need for speedy environmental clearance for the second airport project in the western metropolis and the latter expressing grave concern over environmental damage.

Raising green concern, the Environment Ministry has said that two rivers -- Ulwe and Gadhi -- would have to be diverted for the project, which would also require flattening of some hillocks in the area.

The aviation authorities have made it clear that no additional flight operations would be allowed from the CST Airport as the entire infrastructure was virtually choked for space on the ground as well as on air due to heavy air traffic.

The existing Mumbai airport is also estimated to exhaust its capacity of 40 million passengers per year by 2013, while Navi Mumbai airport is planned to generate a capacity of 60 million passengers each year.