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Panel likely to select Rewas-Mandva for Bombay's new international airport

The 30-member committee appointed by the Airports Authority of India to prepare a report on the setting up of a second international airport in Bombay is scheduled to submit its final report within a few days.

The expert committee is likely to zero in on the Rewas-Mandva belt which had earlier faced stiff opposition from environmentalists and fishermen.

The 30-member Experts Committee set up by the AAI comprises members from the AAI, retired administrative officers, retired state government employees and one non-government organisation. Incidentally, not a single committee has till now visited the Rewas-Mandva belt.

New Panvel and the Rewas-Mandva belt were offered by the City and Industrial Development Corporation as potential sites. However, the New Panvel land cannot accommodate an air strip more than 200 feet in length, the committee has reported. According to safety norms, an international airstrip should have a length of 6,000 feet.

The Rewas-Mandva belt, however, has an extension tract available for setting up an international airport. Moreover, the committee says that constructing a trans-harbour link from Rewas-Mandva to south Bombay in much more feasible. However, the committee has yet to mull over the rehabilitation of thousands of peasants and fisherman who will be affected by the project.

The Union aviation ministry had earlier appointed a British firm M McDonald to draft a feasibility report about the appropriate place and construction of a second international airport in Bombay. The company's feasibility report claimed the second airport could be run profitably only if the Sahar International Airport was closed.

Interestingly, the aviation ministry had refused to acknowledge the report and appointed a 30-member experts committee under the AAI. Although the committee had met on several occasions, there are complaints that it had failed to incorporate the views of those opposing the project in the decision-making process.

Those opposed to the project include the Bombay Environment Action Group, Bombay Natural History Society and the myriad peasants' and fishermen's organisations from the Rewas-Mandva belt.

According to those opposing the airport, Bombay airport has recorded less than expected traffic flow because of the international airports coming up in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Thiruvanathapuram. Therefore, they claim there is no need for a second international airport in Bombay by destroying the greenbelt along the Rewas-Mandva belt.

Captain D P Mathur, who had spent several years with Air-India, lives in Mandva and is providing technical guidance to the anti-airport organisations. According to him, the international airport in Bombay will equip itself with traffic control equipment worth Rs 4.5 billion.

Considering the current recessionary times, the air traffic increase is also on the wane. If both these factors are taken into account, there is no need for a second international airport, feels Captain Mathur.

Compiled by Prasanna D Zore from the Marathi media