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Panvel international airport plans face turbulence

While thousands of passengers suffer delays and congestion at the domestic airport here, plans for a greenfield airport at Panvel continue to move at a snail's pace.
The civil aviation ministry is learnt to have given its in-principle approval on the last but one day of 2015 for financial bids (request for proposals) for the long-delayed Navi Mumbai international airport.
Mumbai airport, which handles nearly 35 million passengers every year, has almost reached saturation point. In fact, air congestion at Mumbai results in frequent delays of flights all over the country. Plans for a new airport at Panvel in Navi Mumbai were first mooted in 1997.
More than 10 years later, the Maharashtra government appointed City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) as the nodal agency for executing the project and gave its approval. However, even after a delay of eight years, the Rs150 billion project has failed to take off.
Cidco officials met civil aviation ministry officials in New Delhi on Wednesday and got approval for seeking financial bids from the four short-listed bidders. The bidders include the GVK group (which operates the Mumbai International airport and has the first right of refusal for the new airport), the GMR group, Mia Infrastructure (promoted by Vinci Airports and Tata Realty and Infrastructure) and Hiranadani Developers (which has partnered Zurich airport).
While the work has been progressing at a slovenly pace all these years, the Maharashtra government and Cidco are confident that the first flight will take off from Panvel in 2019, before the tenure of the present state government ends.
nithin@khaleejtimes.com
Cidco claims that it has control over 94 per cent of the 1,160 hectares of land needed for the project. Issues relating to the remaining land are expected to be resolved over the next two months.
Besides the international airport, the Maharashtra government has ambitious plans for Panvel, which include the development of a Smart city. There are also plans to implement the trans-harbour link from Sewri in central Mumbai to Nhava-Sheva across the harbour.
The absence of such a link over the sea would mean passengers commuting to and from the new airport would spend hours travelling between Mumbai and Panvel.

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