Even as environment minister Jairam Ramesh called it a "major, major compromise" on his demands, the conditions attached to the environmental approval to the Navi Mumbai airport point to a substantial victory for the straight-talking minister.
The approval has come only after the state government promised never to create any hotels or shopping centres around the project area, as it initially wanted, and plant nearly 555 hectares of new mangroves and forests.
Never the one to miss an opportunity, Ramesh also tried to extract a last-minute commitment from the civil aviation minister Praful Patel to dedicate the Juhu airport to Mumbai as its 'green lung,' instead of handing it over to builders. Patel, however, deftly sidestepped the issue.
Uncharacteristically, Ramesh tried to underplay the substantial concessions he extracted from the adamant project proponent City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO).
"We have bargained, we have negotiated and we have compromised... Everybody has compromised. I am pretty confident that we will have a state-of-the-art airport from an environmental point of view," he said in a 'clearing' ceremony attended by both Patel and the new Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.
On the other side, the environment ministry, which had accused CIDCO of unreasonably favouring the present site over others, also dropped its objection. "If the criteria for land acquisition is done away with then Wada [alternate site] and Navi Mumbai sites will score almost similar rankings," the expert appraisal committee of the ministry had pointed out last month.
Ramesh has frequently voiced his displeasure about companies and governments starting work on projects before getting environmental sanction. In this case, however, the minister said he had decided to honour the state government's action of acquiring nearly 78% of the land required for the project before getting the nod.
"By August 2010, it was clear that for various technical and non-technical reasons, the Navi Mumbai location has become a fait accompli [irreversible commitment]... I decided to accept the fait accompli in good faith," he said in his 'notes' on the issue, adding that a new location would have added 2-3 years to the project roll-out. Instead, he said, he decided to approve the project with 32 conditions.
While allowing for the destruction of 98 hectares of mangrove-sites within the project area out of a total of 161 hectares of healthy mangroves, Ramesh also got a commitment from CIDCO to rejuvenate another 245 hectares of mangroves in what was originally a site for hotels and shopping malls. The area of the proposed airport has, therefore, been cut down from around 1,600 hectares to 1,160 hectares.
In addition, the state government will also change the 'Navi Mumbai development plan' and allocate a new 310 hectares north-west of the airport as a forest zone. The new airport will also source 20% of its energy from renewables.
"It is possible that some environmentalists may still be unhappy... But I am firmly of the view that this is the best possible solution that could be crafted after many weeks of negotiations," Ramesh added.
Praful Patel also pointed out that an average plane hovers for around 30 minutes before landing in Mumbai, leading to an extra carbon dioxide emission of more than 2,000 tonnes per year and running up extra fuel bills of thousands of crores of rupees a year.
Prithviraj Chavan added that the state government will apply for forest and high court clearances within one week and start work to relocate 3,000 families and acquire an extra 436 hectares for the project.
