Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has approached a Dutch company to undertake a feasibility study to reclaim land in the sea if the Maharashtra government fails to complete the entire land acquisition in Panvel for the new airport project. The name of the Dutch company was not disclosed.
Chavan, who was addressing the FICCI Real Estate Summit, said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the airline regulatory body, is looking to extend the Juhu airstrip into the sea. Chavan said, “This study is being undertaken to understand what environmental hurdles we can face and how we can work towards it.”
Chavan indicated that constructing an airport in the sea would meet challenges from the coastal regulation zone (CRZ IV).
With the second airport clearly being his ambitious project as of now, Chavan said, “if you don't get a new airport soon the whole city will choke up and we do need new policies for better infrastructure of the state.”
At present, the New Airport project has received final approvals and land acquisition process will start soon. In the land acquisition process, residents who are giving one hectare of under developed land will receive 22 per cent of developed land against the same whose valuation is close to Rs 19.7 crore per hectare. The airport project requires 475 acres. The new airport is estimated to cost close to Rs 14,000 crore.
On Thursday, Chavan met prime minister Manmohan Singh to seek sanction for mega infrastructure projects for the city. According to the chief minister, the state government will start working on projects of close to Rs 6,000-7,000 crore this year and the PM has already reviewed these projects which include construction of elevated road from Churchgate to Virar over the existing railway line.
He said the state government will announce its cluster development policy in a day or two wherein it will be first implemented in the Mumbai metropolitan region and then it would be followed in Thane and Pimpri-Chinchwad area. The cluster development policy will look into proper housing colonies and cluster development of residential units.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)