Clear the slums at CSIA, says PM

Mumbai: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Maharashtra government to do its bit for the expansion of the existing domestic terminal, while assuring chief minister Ashok Chavan of progress on the Navi Mumbai airport project.
A top Mantralaya official and aviation ministry officials told ET that the prime minister also sought to know the progress on rehabilitation of slums that smother Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).
Around 80,000 odd shanties occupying 276 acres around CSIA have held up the expansion and modernisation of the airport. The state government and civil aviation ministry have claimed that CSIA would run out of its capacity to handle passenger and cargo traffic by 2013.
This argument is also being used by the state to make a strong case for a second airport at Navi Mumbai. State government officials, however, told ET that the environment and forests ministry briefed the prime minister on the slow work by the state on slum rehabilitation at CSIA.
06/09/10 Abhiram Ghadyalpatil/Economic Times

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Categories: airports Sep 2010