Navi Mumbai airport will be named after PAP leader DB Patil, assures Centre

Navi Mumbai Airport to be named Loknete DB Patil, honouring the late activist's legacy, following demands from project-affected leaders and community protests

PANVEL: Union minister of state for civil aviation Murlidhar Mohol has stated that the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport will soon be named after the late Dinkar Balu Patil, a former MP and activist who led several protests by farmers and land owners in Navi Mumbai when the Maharashtra government acquired land in the area in the 1970s and 1980s to build the planned city.

Union minister of state for civil aviation Murlidhar Mohol has stated that the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport will soon be named after the late Dinkar Balu Patil. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The announcement came following a meeting of top project-affected person (PAP) leaders of the region with union civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu in Delhi on Monday. Naidu assured the Loknete DB Patil Navi Mumbai International Airport All Party Action Committee, a group formed by protesting PAPs, that their demand would be met.

Navi Mumbai PAPs and members of the Agri-Koli community have held large protests over the last few years to push for their demand to name the airport after Patil. The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, under former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, had proposed to name the airport after Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.

Following the protests, the MVA had approved naming the airport after Patil on its last day in office in June 2022. Its successor, the Eknath Shinde-headed Mahayuti government had also passed a resolution for the same at its first cabinet meeting. The resolution was approved by both houses of the state legislature and sent to the central government. After not getting a response, the action committee took it up directly with the Centre.

Present for the meeting with Naidu were former minister of state Kapil Patil; minister Ravindra Chavan; MPs Srirang Barne and Dhairyasheel Patil; action committee chairman Dashrath Patil; former MPs Ramseth Thakur, Jagannath Patil, and Sanjeev Naik; MLAs Prashant Thakur and Raju Patil, and DB Patil’s son Atul, among others.

“The Navi Mumbai international airport is set to become Loknete DB Patil Navi Mumbai Airport soon,” said Mohol. “A high-level meeting was held [on Monday] with Naiduji, in which discussions were held regarding the Maharashtra government’s resolution. Various technicalities in this regard were positively discussed. Very soon, the cabinet will take a positive decision to honour the feelings of the movement and the late DB Patil.”

Panvel MLA Prashant Thakur, who was in the delegation, said, “The meeting has given a new high to DB Patil’s legacy and our struggle to get the airport named after him. Minister Naidu has confirmed to us that, taking into account the sentiments of the PAPs, the union government will soon complete the naming process and declare DB Patil’s name for NMIA.”

He added, “The due process of naming has been initiated and it will be followed up with the prime minister’s office and the cabinet. The minister assured us that the name will be declared before the airport is commissioned. The minister told us that no other name has been proposed to the ministry for the airport. He said the government respects Patil’s struggle for the people and our agitations.”