Island airport gains momentum

CMO asks Dutch consortium to prepare financial details The Chief Minister's Office of Maharashtra has asked the City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to prepare the cost estimation and feasibility report for Navi Mumbai island airport, based on a proposal submitted by a Dutch consortium recently. Jayant Kumar Banthia, Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, told Construction World that the government is very much optimistic about the out-of-the-box proposal submitted by Netherlands Airport Consultants (NACO). Construction World dated 20 October first reported on the proposal, involving part-construct and part-reclaim of an island on an area of 4,500 acre in the bay. CIDCO, which was not in favour of this proposal earlier, has now issued a letter to NACO to report the cost and time estimates. Meanwhile, Joeri Aulman, Regional Manager, Royal HaskoningDHV, representing the consortium, has confirmed that he has received an official request from CIDCO to conduct the feasibility report: "As we have already started the process, the preparation for feasibility report will take two months and on the basis of it, we will give cost estimates for the project." This new development comes on the heels of, and raises questions as to, the land acquisition process in the villages. CIDCO and the Government of Maharashtra had claimed a tactical victory as they had negotiated with project-affected persons (PAPs) over the price. To further complicate matters, two days after this announcement, villagers announced their decision to continue the agitation for compensation of 35 per cent developed land and monetary compensation of Rs 6.25 crore per hectare. About 291 hectares of the total 2,020 hectare project land remains to be acquired from locals to build the runway. According to the agreement as claimed by the government, each landowner would get 22.5 per cent of the land back as developed plots. Of this, 12.5 per cent was part of the original agreement while 10 per cent would be given based on the current value of the land. The existing site spreads over 1,800 acre whereas the proposed airport island spans across 4,500 acre. If the island airport is approved, it would obviate the entire land acquisition tug-of-war. As this publication had reported earlier, an island airport could also unlock the BOT potential of the now-languishing Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTNL), since the island would be in close proximity to the Link.