The Maharashtra government has approved the Navi Mumbai airport being developed on PPP basis. Estimated to cost Rs 10,000 crore, the airport will come up on 2,000 hectares of land near Panvel. City & Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Cidco) and Airports Authority of India will together hold 26 per cent equity stake while the private sector developer will be the majority shareholder with 74 per cent.
Cidco will start the bidding process once Louis Berger, the project consultant, completes the detailed project report. By current thinking, global bids for the airport developer will be invited in the next four-five months.
Coming up in four phases, the project will require Rs 4,200 crore in phase-I, Rs 1,896 crore and Rs 1,600 crore in the second and third stage, and Rs 2,272 crore in the final phase. Of the 2,000 hectares, 1,150 is owned by Cidco, 443 by the government and remaining 457 hectares will be acquired by private parties.
The approval for this project was delayed due to various hurdles pointed by the ministry of environment and forests, one of them being more than 30 per cent of the entire proposed land fell under the coastal regulatory zone (CRZ). The airport, spreading across seven villages, will also displace around 4,000 families; and project affected people expressed discontent over the proposed compensation. The state government is negotiating with the Centre for relaxing the coastal zone management rules, and Cidco is working out a suitable compensation package. The proposed budget also includes the cost of shifting high-voltage transmission lines, and diversions to the course of two rivers, Ulwe and Gadhi.
Likely to be operational by 2012, the airport will initially handle 10 million passengers in phase-I, gradually moving to 40 million passengers by 2030.