Central team visit first,call on new airport later

The EAC met Wednesday in New Delhi where officials of the state government and City Industrial Development Corporataion Limited (CIDCO) presented an environment impact assessment report. The report had been prepared to address the three major environmental concerns expressed by the EAC at the last meeting in August: diversion of the Gadhi and Ulwe rivers,cutting of a hillock and shifting of 161 acres of mangroves from the proposed site in Navi Mumbai.

State officials said the EAC had expressed concerns about the diversion of the Gadhi and the government will now have to work out a solution. “The committee still has apprehensions about the diversion of the Gadhi. It is not entirely impossible to avoid it,” said a senior state official.

The official added the state and CIDCO would now discuss with consultants Louis Berger possible measures to avoid the diversion. “If the two runways are shifted then something can be worked out to avoid diverting the river. We will now consult Louis Berger. We will have to once again go before the EAC for final approval,” the official said.

The EAC has expressed an eagerness to send a team to the site. “We have invited them to visit the site to get an idea of what can be done. They are expected to visit after the CWG,around October 16,” said the official.

Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has expressed his concerns about the environmental impact of building an airport at the site and asked the state government and CIDCO to look for alternative sites.

Earlier this month,the state government submitted new CRZ maps to the EAC as per their requirement with a resolution of 1:4,000. The maps CIDCO submitted earlier had been prepared in 1995 with a resolution of 1:25,000. Last month,a team of civil aviation experts had visited the site and submitted a report to the EAC.