Defence objections delay heliport at Nariman Point

Stuck in the permission glitch of various ministries of the central government, the heliports planned by the state government at Nariman Point and Nerul may not be able to meet their deadlines.

The state government has sent a reminder letter to the Centre requesting it to speed up the procedure for granting permission. 
The defence ministry has raised strong objections to the heliport at Nariman Point, which is proposed to be constructed on a jetty and on the lines of the one in Manhattan, New York.

After a high-power committee finalised its decision for the heliports at Nariman Point and Nerul in March, the letters from the state government were sent to the various departments of the central government. Though the state government could have procured the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) permission, there was no response from the ministry of environment and forest.  

The state government has set a certain time-frame for the project as it does for all other infrastructure projects. It wanted to complete all administrative procedures for the project by December and throw the heliports operational in two years after that. An official from the state aviation department admitted that with the permission delayed, the state would not be in a position to follow the time-frame.

However, state chief secretary JP Dange has claimed that that they will be able to meet the deadline. “The defence ministry has raised certain objections. I have personally spoken to the officials from the ministry and we are hopeful that the permission will given shortly,” he said.

The Nariman point heliport will be spread over 1.5 hectares of the jetty and will have the capacity of land-anchoring six helicopters at a time. The project will be implemented on a private public partnership (PPP) and viability gap funding of Rs33 crore, which will be borne by the state government.  

The official said that the permission for the Nerul heliport has no problem, but the priority is the Nariman Point heliport. “The business barons in the city are likely to use the Nariman Point heliport for travelling in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and to and from the international airport,” he said.