In the wake of the standoff between the Union and Maharashtra governments over granting environmental clearance for Mumbai's second airport, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday assured Chief Minister Ashok Chavan that he would examine the issue and try and resolve it at the earliest.
Later, Mr. Chavan said the Prime Minister, stressing that nothing should come in the way of Mumbai's development, had promised a Congress delegation, led by the Chief Minister, that he would “personally look into the matter.” Dr. Singh also noted that “Mumbai is of paramount importance to the country. I appreciate that a new airport is a necessity,” Mr. Chavan said.
The delegation explained that Mumbai urgently needed a second airport and that restructuring and expanding the existing one would not suffice. The Mumbai airport, which currently handles 26 million passengers annually, will have to cope with a projected traffic flow of 45 million passengers by 2014-2015 and 119 million by 2031-2032.
Parrying questions whether Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh's approach posed a problem, Mr. Chavan said he had met the Minister thrice, and that the State was prepared to do whatever was needed to protect the environment in the airport project area at Navi Mumbai.
The delegation's meeting with Dr. Singh came a day after the State government, in a bid to soften up the Union Environment Ministry — after consultations with experts in the Aviation Ministry and the Centre's Hydraulic Department — decided to exclude 160 hectares of Waghivali village, which abuts the Panvel Creek and the Gadhi and Ulve rivers, north of the airport site — from the proposed area.
It has also agreed to regenerate and maintain the dense mangrove forest which will not be included in the proposed airport.
Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has ruled out an alternative site: indeed, he and Mr. Ramesh have already had two rounds of meetings.
