Minister of civil aviation Praful Patel has launched a fresh salvo against minister of environment Jairam Ramesh whose delay in granting clearance to the Navi Mumbai airport will adversely impact the economic growth of Maharashtra.
“The issue of the Navi Mumbai airport has to be resolved at the earliest otherwise this will adversely affect the economy of not only Mumbai but of the entire neighbouring region including Thane, Pune and the whole state. The minister of environment(Jairam Ramesh) is well aware that the present Mumbai airport has reached a stage where it cannot take any more traffic,” said Mr Patel talking exclusively to this newspaper.
“One runaway cannot service the needs of such a large population. The minister of environment cannot claim he is the only responsible minister in the government and the others are not responsible. I am an equally responsible minister. I personally visited the site(of the airport). The issue of the mangrove forests cannot be allowed to act as an impediment in the larger context of the development of Mumbai,” the minister stated.
“We need to strike a right balance between development and environment. I also have a great deal of concern for the environment and Maharashtra’s chief minister has already given an assurance to the Prime Minister that he will plant twice the number of trees upstream to ensure that all mitigation and adaptation steps are fulfilled,” Mr Patel added
On the equally contentious issue of the diversion of two rivers — the Gadh and the Ulwe which flow into the Panvel Creek, Mr Patel claimed, “They are not rivers, they are rivulets.”
The minister conceded, “We would have been only too happy to find a new site if they had been feasible but this is not the case. We have to keep the present terrain of Mumbai in mind surrounded by big hills.”