Will resolve deadlock: Jairam to PM

MoEF said it would help in finding an early resolution to the deadlock over the Navi Mumbai airport project.

The Environment Ministry has assured the Prime Minister that it will help in finding an early resolution to the deadlock over the Navi Mumbai airport project but has also requested the Maharashtra government and the Civil Aviation Ministry to show some flexibility on the issue.

The assurance has come in response to a communication from the PMO asking the Environment Ministry to expedite its decision-making process on this crucial infrastructure project. As reported by this newspaper on Wednesday,the PMO had said that the decision to give or deny environmental clearance to the project needed to be taken quickly to clear the uncertainty on this issue.

The proposed new airport for Mumbai,which seeks to address the pressing problem of shrinking airspace in the citys rapidly-increasing air-traffic,has been the subject of a bitter turf war between the Environment Ministry,which has raised several environmental objections at the projects current location in Navi Mumbai,and the Civil Aviation Ministry,which has been backing the project. So much so,that the Prime Minister himself has had to intervene in the matter on more than one occasion and ask the two parties to find a mutually-agreeable solution.

We have assured the Prime Minister that a solution would,no doubt,be found. The Environment Ministry is not unmindful of the need to have a second airport in Mumbai. We are processing the matter as fast as we can, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

At the same time,I feel that the Maharashtra government and the Civil Aviation Ministry also need to be a little more accomodative of ecological concerns, he said.

Rameshs ministry has now been suggesting that the project developer CIDCO City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra drop plans to integrate a hotel and shopping complex within the airport project and relocate these non-essentials to some other nearby areas to minimise the environmental impact. Relocating the hotel and the shopping complex can save a substantial part of the 400 acres of mangroves that is under threat because of the project. CIDCO has also been given some other suggestions to keep the environmental damage within reasonable limits.

CIDCO has indicated that it will report back to the Environmental Appraisal Committee EAC,the permanent panel within the Environment Ministry that deals with environmental clearances to infrastructure projects,by September 13,well before the committees next meeting between September 20 to 22.

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Meanwhile,Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan has made a detailed submission to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,requesting his help and support in getting early clearances and sanction for the project. He has requested that the EAC itself make a visit at the site at the earliest to evaluate the project. As reported on Wednesday,the EAC has already decided to make the site visit but that was likely to happen only by the end of this month,after its scheduled September 20-22 meeting.