MIAL receives state cabinet approval for Navi Mumbai airport

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday gave India’s commercial nervecentre a sparkling Diwali gift just after the festival of lights by approving a GVK-led consortium’s bid to build a second airport for Mumbai at Ulwe for Rs 16,000 crore.

The Mumbai International Airport Ltd’s ( MIAL) offer to develop the airport at the satellite township across the water-margin received the Maharashtra cabinet approval, moving the project to commissioning stage from the blueprint conceived more than a decade ago.

The airport seeks to de-congest aviation traffic in the city that’s home to India’s central bank, the equity and bond markets, the commodities exchanges, and the world’s most-prolific film industry.

The cabinet decision came after the high-level Project Monitoring and Implementation Committee gave its nod to the project last Wednesday. "The project has also been given the Stage 2 environmental clearance already.

Now that the state cabinet approval has come, MIAL would be given the Letter of Intent. After that, it would try and achieve financial closure and begin work on the project," said Mohan Ninawe, spokesperson for the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd. ( CIDCO).

In a two-pony race, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) won the bid for the airport in February, outrunning rival GMR Infrastructure that operates the Delhi and Hyderabad airports. MIAL offered a higher revenue share to CIDCO, the land-owner for the project.