Navi Mumbai airport could taxi into new trouble

Mumbai: It appeared, after a meeting between the warring parties two weeks ago, that Mumbai would get its new airport after all. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel consulted with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, and a compromise seemed possible, if not imminent.

At the heart of the conflict lies the environmental impact of the airport, planned 20 km away from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Mumbai needs a second international airport because it could exhaust its capacity for 40 million passengers per year by 2013. The Navi Mumbai airport, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2013, is expected to handle an additional 60 million passengers every year.

The original plans for the airport, according to environmental studies, would have risked 400 acres of mangroves, and necessitated the diversion of two rivers. Ramesh expressed his reservations, and after careful negotiations, the Maharashtra government suggested amendments to the blueprint that would minimize environmental damage. But now, a panel of technical experts say those changes aren't possible. It will present its report to the union government on Tuesday.

The government's reworked plan asked for the non-aeronautical activities of the airport, located in the mangrove zone, to be shifted south to land allotted to Reliance Industries and Videocon. But technical experts have rejected that move because it would need roads and crucial water and gas pipelines to be diverted.

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The government had also come up with a plan to shift the runway slightly to reduce the impact on the Gadhi River. Technical experts say that redirection would mean two hills would have to be damaged.

The government had also considered using a runway built on stilts to avoid damaging mangroves. But technical experts say this would make the runway more vulnerable to security risks.

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