Port of Trouble

Personal wealth of many politicians is linked to the new airport.

It is not election time in Maharashtra, yet there is hectic political activity. Political parties of all sizes are in a heated debate on the site for Bombay’s second airport. While the Congress, NCP and BJP are pushing for the airport to be situated in New Bombay, the site already earmarked for the purpose, the Shiv Sena has vowed to stop any such activity.

Interestingly, when the Shiv Sena was in power in the state, it wanted the airport to come up at the very site it is objecting to now. For many of the big names in Maharashtra’s politics, the airport is linked to personal profits. Since they knew about the proposed airport, many of them—across party lines—bought real estate around the site. In the last five years, real estate in this area has boomed and politicians have pocketed enormous profits. If the airport does not come up in this area now, then along with real estate the politicians’ profits would also fall. Hence the frenzied activity to get the project started.

The Environment Ministry headed by Jairam Ramesh has cited serious environment concerns and withheld the requisite permissions. 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has met Ramesh and sought speedy clearance for the project. The state government has acquired land for the project, but work cannot begin till environment clearance comes in. The project will result in diversion of two rivers and loss of mangroves spread across 400 acres.

Praful Patel is blaming the Environment Ministry for delaying the project. He says that while there are some environment-related issues, the delay is causing a lot of damage to Bombay’s future. The overcrowded airport currently handles 26 million passengers annually and the traffic flow is expected to be  45 million by 2014-15 and 119 million by 2031-32.

Stonewalled by the Environment Ministry, the Chief Minister met Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh recently. Chavan says, “The Prime Minister told us that nothing will come in the way of Mumbai’s development.”

About The Author

Haima Deshpande