Navi Mumbai's missing airport

It's a project that's been on the drawing board forever. The proposal for an international airport in Navi Mumbai has been shuttling government offices of Maharashtra and Centre for almost two decades now. After much dilly-dallying, the Central government approved the project construction in May 2007.

It was then that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest raised a red flag citing harm to 150 acres of mangroves. The airport is expected to come up on 2,000 ha (75 per cent of which has already been acquired), with an investment of around Rs 10,000 crore, near Panvel in Navi Mumbai.

Given the pace at which things are going, it looks like Aviation Minister Praful Patel's promise of the airport's first phase being operational by 2013 is another deadline that's going to be missed.