Central Panel to inspect 2nd airport site over 3 days

The Centre's Experts Appraisal Committee (EAC) will visit Navi Mumbai over the next three days to inspect the proposed site for the second airport at Panvel, 35 km from Mumbai. Sayli Udas Mankikar reports.

The Centre's Experts Appraisal Committee (EAC) will visit Navi Mumbai over the next three days to inspect the proposed site for the second airport at Panvel, 35 km from Mumbai.

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The report of the committee, which will arrive in the city today, will decide whether or not the second airport will come up on this site.

"The team will inspect the site and make observations. The proposal will be discussed in a meeting a day later," Tanaji Satre, joint chairman of City Industrial and Development Corporation (Cidco), told the Hindustan Times on Tuesday.

The EAC will also talk to villagers living near the site and verify the claims Cidco has made in its environment assessment report.

The state government expects the second airport to be operational from 2014. It will handle 60 million passengers a day by 2030-2031 and provide parking space for 101 aircraft, reducing the burden on the existing airport in Mumbai.

The proposal has been going back and forth between the state and the Centre since 2007 due to environment concerns such as the effects of diverting the two rivers in the vicinity and clearing a 400-acre stretch of mangroves.