Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Ajit Singh questioned about Navi Mumbai airport' that was published in Newsband

Ajit Singh questioned about Navi Mumbai airport

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that due to the delay in the commencement of work on the Navi Mumbai airport, the administration would now concentrate on expanding the Juhu airport. Union minister for civil aviation Ajit Singh confronted questions about the delay in the commencement of the Navi Mumbai airport that is choking the air traffic development in Mumbai.

"Juhu airport will be very important in view of the delay in Navi Mumbai airport construction. There are constraints at the Mumbai airport and it will not be able to handle additional traffic," Ajit Singh said in Mumbai.

The Navi Mumbai airport project has still not taken off as the state is yet to finalize a rehabilitation package for the people living in the area and to be affected by the project.

Chief Secretary J K Banthia said 70 per cent land acquisition for the Navi Mumbai airport was complete and the state government was now in the process of relocating high-tension wires from the proposed site.

At present, the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport handles nearly 30 million passengers annually. An expansion programme now underway will increase its capacity to 40 million passengers. However, there is still a need for creating more capacity and the state was expecting that the Navi Mumbai airport, which was to be completed by 2015-16, could take off part of the load.

At present, India is the 9th largest aviation market in the world handling 121 million domestic and 41 million international passengers annually, said Ajit Singh.

Responding to a query on the delay in commencing the work on the proposed new international airport at Navi Mumbai, he said the ongoing modernization and expansion being carried out at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai would enable it handle up to 40 million passengers per annum.

As per original plans, the new Navi Mumbai airport was scheduled to commence operations around 2015-16.

Singh termed 49% FDI in aviation as the single most important policy decision which will transform the civil aviation scenario. In order to give a boost to international air travel, the government has liberalized granting of traffic rights to Indian carriers.