Mumbai's third airport at Navi Mumbai to be functional in two years: Praful Patel

04 Oct 2008

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Mumbai: The Government is looking at building a third airport at Mumbai as existing airports in the city are already running at full passenger capacity. The new airport will be located in the satellite city of Navi Mumbai.

"We are looking at building a new airport...construction work should start by the end of next year or else Mumbai will suffer as the old airports are saturated," civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, said.

Over the next two years at least one runway ought to be ready, Patel told reporters here. The investment in the new airport is estimated at around Rs9,000-crore.

Speaking about the state of affairs in the aviation industry, Patel said it was expected to post huge losses. However, Patel said that losses may be lower, at around Rs 6,000-crore for the fiscal, as against the earlier projected Rs8,000-crore.

"If oil rules around $80 per barrel, then airline losses are seen at Rs6,000-crore, which were earlier seen at Rs8,000-crore," Patel said. Fuel prices have declined considerably, as compared to its highs, and the rupee has also lost ground against the dollar. "So the impact is slightly reduced," he said.

Patel also said that the Centre had no issues about domestic air-carriers importing fuel from abroad, in an attempt to avoid costly fuel available at home. "We will be happy if they import fuel to bring down costs since ministries of finance and petroleum do not act on any issues supporting the airlines," he said.

He also clarified that there was no ban on importing aviation turbine fuel for self-use.

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