Bids for design consultants for Juhu aerodrome expansion soon

With the in-principle approval for the Rs2,000-crore Juhu aerodrome redevelopment plan in place, the government will soon invite bids to appoint a design consultant, aviation ministry sources said.

The in-principle approval was announced last Friday after a meeting between the officials of civil aviation ministry, the Airports Authority, Maharashtra government and the city's development agency MMRDA, apart from the Mumbai airport.

"We will shortly invite bids from interested parties to present us a detailed design plan," officials said in Mumbai, adding that KPMG had already done the concept part of project.

A meeting is also expected to take place next week with Slum Rehabilitation Authority to discuss plans for shifting the thousands of shanties within the Juhu aerodrome limits.

Alongwith the runway development, construction of the terminal and apron, plans also include re-locating the residents of at least 5,000 of these shanties.

According to the plan, by extending the runway by 750-800 meters into the sea, smaller aircraft such as ATRs, Bombardier Q400s and corporate jets can land there.

The present length of the Juhu main runway is 1,143 metres and to allow small aircraft operations the length will have to be extended.

"The Mumbai airport will be saturated after it touches 45 million passengers annually, which is likely by 2017. Since the proposed Navi Mumbai airport will take time to come up due many reasons, Juhu can give a breather to the city.

"Therefore, 15 per cent of the traffic at Mumbai airport, mainly small aircraft and corporate jets, can be shifted to Juhu, which can help enhance the capacity of the main airport to about 52 million," Aviation Secretary K N Shrivastva told reporters over the weekend. Mumbai airport currently handles 32 million passengers annually.

The ministry envisages a three-year timeline to fully redevelop Juhu airstrip including 18 months construction time.

"Slum rehabilitation and floating of tenders would take about 16 months. After that, we will finish the work in the next 20 months," Srivastava said.