25 October,2017 01:43 PM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
The first phase of the project is expected to be complete by 2019
The state Cabinet has finally given its nod to the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) for construction of the city's second international airport at Navi Mumbai. The bid that MIAL had put forward in February this year, was approved at the Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday.
The plot on which the Navi Mumbai airport will come up
According to sources, the project was conceived in 1997 and approved in 2007. The first phase of it is expected to be complete by 2019. However, sources are of the opinion that inordinate delays in land acquisition and environmental concerns would not allow the authorities concerned to make the airport fully operational before March 2024. But if work starts on time, then the developer might be able to complete the first stage in 36 months.
At present, Mumbai needs a second airport due to extreme congestion at the existing one. Last year, the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport handled 45.2 million passengers. The Navi Mumbai airport will be set up on a public-private partnership model. The Rs 16,000 crore project will have equity of 74 per cent for MIAL and 13 per cent each for the Airports Authority of India and City and Industrial and Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is the project's implementation agency.
CIDCO is expected to give MIAL the Letter of Intent anytime soon, so that construction can start. However, the agency has already started primary work like land reclamation and changing the course of water as per the environmental clearances. People living in three villages have also been rehabilitated.
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