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Monitoring is critical

At last, the decks have been cleared for building a new airport at Navi Mumbai, the second for India's commercial capital whose existing airport is bursting at the seams. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), which had raised several objections to the project, has given the go-ahead after its concerns have been addressed to its satisfaction. It is clear that all sides involved in sanctioning and implementing the project have climbed down from their rigid positions — and in the process made some compromises — to see it through. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh made it clear that the new airport will now be developed with minimum damage to the environment. Environmentalists had objected to the project mainly on three counts: that precious mangrove forests will be wiped out; that it entails changing the course of a river and water body; and that providing a smooth access to the runways will require the levelling of a 90 metre-high hill. When Mr. Ramesh raised these concerns with the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Maharashtra government, some sought to turn it into a virtual ‘environment vs development' debate. In the end, the three authorities got together and found ways of keeping the adverse impact to the minimum. The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has now agreed to raise 600 hectares of mangrove plantation around the airport area to offset the loss of mangroves over an extent of about 400 ha. More importantly, about 3,000 families in 10 settlements will be rehabilitated, and the course of the Gadhi river will not be altered.

The Navi Mumbai facility, expected to cost nearly Rs.10,000 crore, can handle an additional 10 million passengers a year when it becomes operational. Of the 32 conditions the MoEF has laid down, the most important perhaps is that a high level advisory and monitoring committee of international experts should be set up for overseeing whether the environment-related measures are implemented fully and effectively. The quality of this monitoring exercise is critical to hold all the public authorities to their promise of development of the airport with minimal costs to the environment, with adequate attention being paid to the question of resettlement of the project-affected people. Mr. Ramesh wants an “environmentally safe, ecologically sound, energy efficient international airport.” It is up to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to deliver that and thereby demonstrate that “development, environmental protection and sustainability can go hand in hand.”

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