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Mumbai will soon get its second international airport as the state government is in the process of acquiring land at Navi Mumbai and bids for the project will be invited at the year-end.
"City and Industrial Development Corporation has started land acquisition process for 600 acres," Secretary (Special Projects) Sanjay Ubale told PTI.
"Consultants have been appointed for the project and bidding process will start at the end of this year," he added. The consultants for the project include Scott & Wilson from England, Louis Burger and Mott McDonald, both from the US and Maun Senn from Singapore.
Scott & Wilson has developed the Brussels and Dublin airports, while Louis Burger those at Cairo, Bogota and Mexico City. Maun Senn has developed Houston and Philadelphia airports.
The Chhattrapati Shivaji International Airport of Mumbai has reached its maximum capacity and due to space constraint it cannot be expanded to meet growing civil aviation needs. The state was mulling to build a new airport at Navi Mumbai for the past few years. But the proposal was delayed due to objections from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The Navi Mumbai site, on the city's outskirts, was proposed on the basis of availability of space, power, water supply, roads and limited rehabilitation issues. The airport is to come up on 2,500 acres of land at Panvel in Raigad district. The aviation hub is to be developed in four phases and will cost an estimated Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion).
Phase I of the proposed airport would come up by 2012. The airport, which will have a capacity to handle 55 million passengers per year, is to be developed under the Public-Private Partnership with CIDCO, a state government agency and Airport Authority of India (AAI).
The Phase I (2008-2012) will cost Rs 4,200 crore (Rs 42 billion) and once completed it will have a capacity to handle 10 million passengers per annum.
Phase II is expected to be completed during 2015-2017 at an estimated cost of Rs 1,896 crore (Rs 18.96 billion) with capacity to handle 20 million passengers per annum. Phase III (2020-2022) will handle 10 million passengers per year and cost Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion).
The fourth and last phase, estimated to incur Rs 2,272 crore (Rs 22.72 billion), will be ready by 2026-2028.
In June last year, the Union Government had given its approval for the project, which will be developed as a greenfield airport like those at Hyderabad and Bangalore.