The Prime Minister held a meeting today with the Chief
Minister Maharashtra, which was attended by the Agriculture Minister, Finance
Minister, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Deputy Chief Minister of
Maharashtra and Senior Officers of the Govt. of India and the State Government.
The meeting discussed Key Infrastructure Projects in
Maharashtra which needed to be fast tracked so that infrastructure in Mumbai
and other major cities of the state remain in the forefront of development.
The most significant
breakthrough was on
the Navi Mumbai International Airport. The current Mumbai Airport is expected to
reach full capacity by 2015 and in the context of Mumbai's needs as a business
and financial centre, there is a pressing need to develop a new international
airport, failing which traffic to Mumbai would suffer delays and would also get
diverted elsewhere. The Navi Mumbai International Airport would ensure that air
traffic to Mumbai would grow unhindered for many years.
This Airport Project, which was approved in 2007 by the
Ministry of Civil Aviation, has received clearances from many agencies both at
the Central and State levels. The only
major issue that was pending was the acquisition of remaining land. The Chief
Minister of Maharashtra informed that, after detailed discussions with the
Project Affected Persons (PAPs), an agreement had been arrived on a
comprehensive and generous package for the land to be acquired. With this, all
decks have been cleared to move ahead on the Navi Mumbai International Airport
Project. It is likely that the project
will be awarded by 31.3.2014.
Another project that was finalised was the new international
airport in Pune. The present Pune Airport belongs to IAF and the civilian
airport operates through a civil enclave. Given the traffic projections at
Pune, there is an urgent need to build a new Green Field Airport. After
discussing different options, it was decided that a new international airport
would be developed for Pune at Khed. The Pune International Airport Project
would be lead managed by the Airports Authority of India.
The other long pending issue which was resolved is the
expansion of Nagpur airport (MIHAN). It was resolved in the meeting that
Government of India would move to exchange the necessary land with the
Government of Maharashtra so that the work on this can begin immediately.
The other project that was discussed is the Mumbai Elevated
Rail Corridor Project, which envisages an investment of Rs.20,000 crore to
build additional suburban traffic capacity over 60 kms. It was agreed that a fresh traffic study
would be conducted taking into account the traffic capacity being created by
the new Mumbai Metro line which is partially on the same alignment. The modalities on moving
ahead with the project would also be finalised soon after that.
Courtesy: Press Information Bureau (pib.nic.in)
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