Alarm bells have begun to ring for Mumbai airport. While the Navi Mumbai airport project is caught in a web of stalled environmental clearances,the Civil Aviation Ministry is seriously considering banning any more turboprop jets in the private category at Mumbai to accommodate more commercial flights. There will soon have to be a general ban on additional flights for turboprop jets in the private category. What can I do? The airport is reaching saturation point. Mumbai desperately needs a second airport, Patel told The Indian Express. Turboprop jets in the private category largely the Cessna and King Air series are used mostly by corporate houses and there are roughly 30-40 movements of such aircraft in a day. With top corporate leaders now using state-of-the-art executive jets,the turboprops are mostly meant for company executives and,at times,are even used by political parties. Given that they are slower on take-off,these aircraft tend to delay arrival and departure of commercial jets. As a first measure,the Civil Aviation Ministry hopes that this will help accommodate more commercial aircraft. But the larger picture is grim. As of now,there are close to 750 daily aircraft movements in Mumbai,which has two cross-runways. The advantage of a cross-runway,an official said,is felt only during departures not arrivals. Delhi with three runways handles about 30-40 movements lesser than Mumbai. Such is the situation that going by peak-hour classification,Mumbais peak hours run the entire 24-hour cycle except for a short gap from 2.30 am to about 4 am. Without additional capacity,I can tell you that by the end of 2011 it will become very difficult for Mumbai to take more flights, Patel said. The Civil Aviation Minister is frustrated because environmental clearances for Navi Mumbai airport have got delayed. His cabinet colleague and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh disagrees. On July 3,Ramesh wrote to Patel that he was not holding back any clearance and that he was awaiting the detailed environmental impact assessment from Maharashtras City and Industrial Development Corporation and the final recommendations of the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority. According to Ramesh,the Environment Advisory Group under his Ministry can take a final view only after these reports are sent. The Navi Mumbai airport project was sent to the Environment Ministry in August 2007. The first delay took place because the Coastal Regulation Act had to be amended to include airport construction as a permissible activity. This could happen only by May 2009. Thereafter,the terms of reference for the EIA were set in August 2009. Suddenly,an Environment Ministry team visited the site last December and revised the terms of reference in February,leading to further delay. But Ramesh has maintained in his letter that while he is not against a new airport,the environmental concerns are serious. I fully understand the need for a new airport for Mumbai but at the same time you will appreciate that the present project has substantial environmental impact,especially in the coastal area. This includes loss of 300 acres of mangroves,diversion of two rivers and levelling of a 80-metre hill and significant coastal management issues, he wrote. Patel,on the other hand,feels there is no alternative and that a balance needs to be struck between environmental concerns and development. His Ministry argues that not more than only 100 acres of mangroves will be affected and that north of the project site,the developers will carry out massive plantation to make up for the mangroves lost. Given that close to 1000 acres of mangroves have been lost to slums in Mumbai,Patel is of the view that development and rehabilitation ought to be accorded higher priority. The one certainty in this high-decibel argument is that the Mumbai airport is not in a position to accommodate more flights. So much so that a stage may come that only wide-bodied aircraft will be allowed to operate to Mumbai,said officials.
