Just one hurdle left for Mumbai airport

All green hurdles are set to be removed in the first week of November for Mumbai’s second airport at Navi Mumbai.

Updated on: Oct 27, 2010, 24:21:32 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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All green hurdles are set to be removed in the first week of November for Mumbai’s second airport at Navi Mumbai.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh and civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Tuesday agreed on the changes required at the project site in Navi Mumbai for the Expert Appraisal Committee to give approval.

The committee is meeting on November 9 and 10 to clear the project following a visit to the project site last week.

The project was approved by the Union cabinet in 2007 but had got stuck with the environment ministry, which raised objections over diversion of two rivers Gadhi and Ulwe, unlikely survival of mangroves spread over 400 acres and the blasting of a hill.

The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO), the project proponent, had agreed to shift the location of non-aeronautical assets such as hotels and shopping areas to minimise damage to mangrove cultivation and diversion of two rivers.

The two runways, a norm for an international airport, will stay at the original location — meaning flattening a small hill that earlier had quarries. Thus, CIDCO had conceded to two of the three issues raised by the ministry.

Ministry officials said CIDCO had been asked to present revised plans as per the agreement before the next panel meeting, in which approval for the project is expected.

“A lot of progress has been made because of the proactive approach taken by both the sides... This project will see the light of day (after November 10),” Patel said after the meeting to remove “green hurdles”.

Ramesh said “we have made good progress” and was hopeful the project will be cleared at the meeting. From the environment point of view, he said “we are 65% satisfied” as the civil aviation ministry has agreed to make “a major effort in mangrove protection”.

green signal

The environment ministry objected to the Navi Mumbai airport because of diversion of two rivers Gadhi and Ulwe, unlikely survival of mangroves spread over 400 acres and the blasting of a hill.

Environment minister and civil aviation minister have agreed on changes required for the Expert Appraisal Committee to give approval.

The committee is meeting on November 9 and 10 to clear the project.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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