A day after the state government said it was willing to consider realigning the plan for the second international airport — at the northern end, which would house the non-aeronautical component — the Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG) wrote to Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh saying
slight changes to the plan wouldn’t help.
“The slight realignment of the site at Navi Mumbai does little to address the potential impact of the project on this sensitive area,” said Navroz Mody, BEAG vice-president, in the letter.
The state government had on Thursday said it would realign the site in order to neutralise any threat to the mangroves and the Gadhi and Ulve rivers.
The BEAG letter asked why ancillary and commercial development has to be at the airport site. “As at Sahar or elsewhere, commercial and residential complexes are available in the vicinity; they can be made available at the Navi Mumbai nodes of Dronagiri, Kalamboli or Ulve,” the letter said.
These are sites that have already been given or marked for special economic zones (SEZs). The land in the SEZ area adjacent to the proposed airport could be considered for commercial development, the letter added.