Navi Mumbai airport gets MoEF green signal

Mumbai: The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has just two day ago given its in principle clearance for the Rs 4,000-crore Navi Mumbai international airport. MoEF, in March, had deferred environment clearance for the project on the grounds that the airport would involve reclamation of low-lying areas in an ecologically fragile zone as well as destruction of several hectares of mangroves.
A visibly relaxed Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Thursday. “We have received an in principle clearance for the Navi Mumbai international airport which has been planned to ease out the burgeoning burden on the existing Mumbai international airport. The project is expected to be complete by 2012”.
A senior state government functionary said that the civil aviation minister Praful Patel as well as the state government had sought the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention after MoEF had raised objections in March. On top of it, Patel had completely ruled out the possibility of changing the present site at Panvel, 35 km away from Mumbai where the state government already chose 1,140 hectares of land. The 1,140 hectares of land is essential to accommodate two parallel runways for simultaneous and segregated parallel operation with provision of full-length taxi ways on either side of the runways. The airfield has been designed to accommodate the new large aircrafts compatible to aerodrome code 4-E.
16/05/08 Financial Express

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Categories: Airports May 2008, New May 2008