The "Truth" behind Navi Mumbai Airport

The existing Mumbai airport has been saturated with air traffic and the city really needs a second airport. The site for the second airport was marked at Navi Mumbai in the 90s.Today, we are in 2010, yet there is no sign of any work starting on the proposed site. Reason? The environmental clearance by Central MoeF, headed by Jairam Ramesh is not in yet.

It is amusing to see the news items related to this second airport at New Mumbai. The government of Maharashtra is controlled by a Congress CM, the country is ruled by a Congress PM, the Minister for Environment and Forests is again a Congressman; then what's the issue?

The key lies in looking into the reality of New Mumbai as an area. New Mumbai today is controlled by the politically influential Ganesh Naik, who is also a Maharashtra Cabinet Minister. Now Mr. Naik is not from the Congress; he is from the NCP which is Sharad Pawar's party. In Navi Mumbai, Ganesh Naik and his family control all the assembly seats, the Parliament seats and the local municipal corporation as well. So whatever happens in Navi Mumbai, happens with the "blessings" of the Naiks and thus indirectly by NCP head Mr. Pawar.

Now let's travel back in times to the pre 1995 era when Sharad Pawar was the CM of Maharashtra. At that time, Navi Mumbai was a small town. It was Pawar who reserved the Navi Mumbai site for the airport then. The moment it was notified as the new "satellite township" with its own airport and connectivity options, the real estate boom started in Navi Mumbai. As every politician does, all NCP guys purchased large chunks of land in that area. So before the world could know and register that an airport would be coming up there, all strategic land bank was grabbed by politicians. Who cared about the environment guys?

Now when Mr. Jairam Ramesh realised that the proposed airport would be a threat to 150 hectares of mangroves and two natural rivers would have to be diverted, he took a strong opposition. While that may be a seemingly public stand, the real issue is that, the moment the new airport gets approval at its current location, all the monetary gain would go to NCP due to natural appreciation of the land prices around and Congress would be the loser. Therefore, unless some "deal" happens between Congress and NCP, this airport will not see the light of the day.

Now please go back to all the news items which have been published recently. You can see names like Supriya Sule (MP and daughter of Sharad Pawar), Sanjeev Naik (Ganesh Naik's son) and Prafful Patel (NCP man and Civil Aviation Minister) being more vocal than anyone else on this issue. And justifiably so, given that they would benefit the most from the second airport at Navi Mumbai!

Realistically, there is no reason for being firm on Navi Mumbai as a location for the second airport. There are many areas across Mumbai Metropolitan region like Kalyan, Virar, Palghar, Murbad where large tracts of land are available and where an airport could be built without much environmental impact. In fact there is a existing airfield at Kalyan which was used by the Royal Air Force of Britain during World War II. Can we not think of recomissioning that airfield? Can we not find an alternate site near Palghar? Yes we can, but then what happens to investments done by NCP in Navi Mumbai?

Think on this guys..we are fooled by everyone in power thinking that the Central Government is concerned by environmental impact. Truth is that the Congress is awaiting a "deal" from the NCP. That's the long and short of it!!