One more step to Mumbai's second airport

The much-awaited Navi Mumbai International airport project has moved a step closer to reality. On Thursday, the Bombay High Court cleared the transfer of 157 acres of land from Cidco, the city development authority for Navi Mumbai to the Airports Authority of India or AAI. There's a long way to go and this is just one more hurdle cleared.
 
The land over which the airport has been proposed was acquired by the state government in 1960s and transferred to CIDCO in 1973. In 2005, a certain Bivalkar family (from Ulwe village in Panvel, the node in which the airport will be located) staked claim to this land. This, in turn, stalled the transfer of the land to AAI. Finally, on Thursday the court observed that "records show that the land has been in CIDCO's possession for several years now," and thereby cleared one more hurdle in the development of a much-needed second airport for Mumbai.
 
But, like we said, this is just one step closer to the Navi Mumbai airport. CIDCO is yet to acquire 424 hectares (one hectare is equal to 2.47 acres) of land and has served notices to local villagers as per the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The acquisition is further complicated by the fact that villagers owning this land are supposedly demanding Rs 20 crore per acre.
 
The Navi Mumbai Airport is proposed to be built over 2,054 hectares and will handle 60 million passengers by 2030. It will have two parallel runways unlike the runways in the current Mumbai airport that criss-cross and therefore limit the number of aircraft that the airport can accommodate. The runways will also enable the landing of large aircraft like the A380. Both runways are also planned to have full-length taxiways on either side. Currently a new taxiway is being constructed adjoining to the main runway at Mumbai International Airport to accommodate larger aircraft like the A380.

GVK and GMR groups, which run airports in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, have expressed interest in bidding for the Navi Mumbai Airport project. Tata Realty and Infrastructure, Hindustan Construction Company, and Reliance Infrastructure, too, are keen.

There's no denying that Mumbai desperately needs another airport . Its counterpart in Delhi has soared ahead handling nearly 900 flights a day to Mumbai's 715.