Decks have been cleared for the development of a second airport in Mumbai, with the environment mi­nistry giving the green signal for the project that has been delayed by several years.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday announced that his ministry had reached a ‘major compromise’ with the civil aviation ministry to develop the second airport in the vast Navi Mumbai area of the country’s financial hub.

The environment clea­rance comes almost 10 years after the Maharashtra government conceived the project. The clearance has been given the go- ahead only after the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) along with the civil aviation ministry agreed to redesign the project to minimise its environment impact on the mangroves part of which will be devoured by it.

Cidco had submitted its techno-economic feasibility study on the airport to the aviation ministry far back in September 2001. “We have cleared the project. The construction can start today,” Ramesh told reporters.

But his ministry has laid down 32 conditions which, he said, must be met. As per conditions, the authorities will have to develop 678 hectares of mangroves around airport. The length of two runways will be 1.5 km each, instead of 1.8 km as per the original design, so as to avoid diversion of the Gadhi river.

Ramesh said that while some of the environmental concerns had been fully addressed, the ministry had also compromised on issues like re-coursing of the Ulwae river and removal of a 90-metre-high hill.

“To me, the Navi Mumbai airport itself is a compromise. However, we have tried to minimise the environmental impact. In the last meeting we addressed around 65-70 per cent of the environment issues, but today we are closer to almost 85 per cent,” he said.

The project will be developed in the public- private partnership model where the private party will hold 74 per cent, and Cidco and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) 13 per cent each. The process to select a bidder is expected to be over within 12 months. The project will be taken up in four phases, with an initial investment of Rs 4,000 crore. The first phase is set to be completed by 2014-15 and the airport will handle 10 million passengers a year.

“With the present Mumbai airport already running out of capacity, we might have to take up both phases one and two simultaneously. Air passenger traffic is growing at 25 per cent. Our request to have another airport was not random,” Praful Patel, civil aviation minister, said.

The Maharashtra government along with Cidco had exaimined six other sites for the new airport. Navi Mumbai was the final choice as it has the biggest advantage of land. “Arou­nd 78 per cent of the total land required for the project has already been acqu­ired. For the remaining 22 per cent, work is already in the process. We have asked our officials to hasten the process,” Prith­viraj Chavan, Maharashtra chi­ef minister, said.

The completion of first phase is expected to create direct employment for 25,000 people and indirect employment for another 1,00,000. “Air traffic congestion at the existing airport in Mumbai causes a loss of Rs 2,250 crore and pumps 2,690 tonnes of carbon dioxide into

the environment,” Chavan said.

The clearance for the second airport is bound to give a fillip to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati’s dream project for an international airport in Greater Noida. A ministerial group headed by home minister P Chidambaram is considering this proposal.