Green signal for international airport at Navi Mumbai
24 Apr 2007
Patel also said that the Centre would invite bids for equity participation in the project by the year-end.
"Land issues relating to the project have been resolved. The government will now proceed for cabinet approval on bidding," Patel said. He also added that after Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata in turn would also get new airports.
According to government sources, the government was likely to clear an international airport to be located at Noida. They also said that Kolkota would need another airport by 2016 as well.
According to civil aviation ministry estimates, Indian airports are likely to handle 400 million passengers per annum year by 2020. The traffic on domestic routes is also slated to increase six-fold in numbers to 180 million, from about 32 million now, by 2020.
The projections for Mumbai are similarly huge. Mumbai is expected to handle 91 million passengers by 2030-31, from the current 20 million.
According to government sources, the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport would cost around Rs4,235 crore and will be run on a public-private partnership basis through an SPV.
While the Airport Authority of India and Maharashtra's City and Industrial Development Corporation will jointly hold a 26 per cent in the SPV, a private partner is expected to retain the balance 74 per cent.