New airport at Navi Mumbai won’t serve the needs: Report

New Delhi: The new airport at Navi Mumbai, backed by Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel, will be saturated in 25 years. This is what a report submitted by a Mumbai-based think tank to the Jairam Ramesh-headed environment and forest ministry, said. The Observer Research Foundation of Mumbai in its report on the second airport says the proposed airport at Panvel will be saturated in about 25 years after it starts operations and by then there may be no land available in Mumbai for a third airport.
“To continue to operate two airports well beyond saturation point would be an invitation to disaster,” said Hormuz P Mama, an aviation expert, who authored the report.
The report will be examined at the next meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee that is examining the proposal for the second airport.
The total land available for the new airport is 1.140 hectares. The airport will have an ultimate capacity of 50 million passengers a year. “It will be only half of the ultimate capacity of several competing airports around India,” Mama said.
06/10/10 Chetan Chauhan/Hindustan Times

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Categories: airports Oct 2010, New Oct 2010