Prime Minister's Office positive on Navi Mumbai airport

Mumbai: The Democratic Front government has taken its battle for Navi Mumbai airport to prime minister Manmohan Singh. In a two-pronged strategy, the state government is using both administrative and political pressure through consensus to get a nod from the Centre, which has so far appeared reluctant due to the environmental issues dogging the project.
Leading the mission is chief minister Ashok Chavan, who is determined that the airport at Navi Mumbai comes up in the stipulated time frame. Chavan said, “If the project gets clearance in a couple of months, we can still meet the first phase deadline of 2014.”
The Navi Mumbai airport project, estimated to cost Rs9,970 crore, is to be completed in four phases, and will include two 4,500 metre runways a kilometre apart. The target is to tap 10 million passengers at the end of the first phase. The next three phases — to be completed in 2018, 2023 and 2028 — is expected to service 50 million passengers.
The biggest hurdle for the state is the negative response from Union minister for environment Jairam Ramesh, who doesn’t want to compromise on green violations for the airport.
06/08/10 Shubhangi Khapre/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: airports aug 2010, New Aug 2010