NEW AIRPORT ROW
Cidco gets ready with green report
 Mumbai:
State environment ministry and the Cidco are making a last-ditch
effort to convince the Union ministry of environment and forests
(MoEF) about the environmental feasibility of the proposed
airport in Navi Mumbai; the Cidco will explain their plans
of widening and diverting rivers, Ulve and Gadhi, and planting
mangroves on 350-400 hectares of land in Dahanu and Palghar as a
compensatory step for cutting the trees on 162 hectares in
Panvel.
The state environment
department and Cidco will meet on Monday to discuss the various
environmental parameters involved in the project and to finalise
their report to the Union environment ministry.
State environment secretary Valsa Nair Singh said the MoEF
was worried that the ecology would be affected and the area would be flooded
if the Ulve and the Gadhi were widened and diverted and the
mangroves were hacked.Both the plans have been proposed to make
way for the new airport and the Union ministry of environment
and forests have raised objections to them, putting the airport
plan on hold.
“Following the MoEF directions,
the Cidco has amended its
environment impact assessment (EIA) report on the proposed
airport and submitted it to the state Coastal Zone Management
Authority (CZMA). Only after going through the papers on Monday,
will be able to inform our counterparts in the Centre if the
agency had complied to all the 25 points raised by the coastal
zone management as well as the demands of the Union environment
ministry. The report will be forwarded to the MoEF and by the
end of the month, a panel of their experts will decide whether
or not the project should be given the green signal,’’ said
Singh. On Tuesday, the final and amended version of the EIA and
the report on the public hearing conducted by the Maharashtra
pollution control board (MPCB) will be forwarded to the Union
MoEF in Delhi.
About Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s claim that
the state environment ministry was yet to reply to its letter,
Singh said it was regarding the pollution control board’s
hearing report, which the central ministry wanted to be sent
through the MCZMA. “The MPCB report was sent to the Union
department. But the ministry sent it back, saying they wanted
MCZMA’s remarks. We will forward the report after the Monday
meeting,’’ said Singh.
Cidco’s officiating MD T Satre said they proposed to widen
the rivers from 140m to 480 m. Satre added that they would plant
mangroves on 400 hectares in Palghar and Dahanu and neither step
would harm the ecology. MONEY MATTERS Cidco spent over Rs 10
K cr on Navi Mumbai: Report
Mumbai: It has not only taken over 39 years of effort for Navi
Mumbai and its urban infrastructure to evolve but also Rs 10,702
crore, reveals a recent report reviewing the township’s finances
so far.
The City and industrial development corporation (Cidco),
creators of Navi Mumbai, did a retrospective of 40 years of its
finances and brought to the fore, facts which changed the face
of the area.
The report ‘Financial performance of Cidco since 1970’ says
that Cidco’s policy to use land and reserve price of projects as
a source of revenue has resulted in expenditure increasing from
Rs 3 crore in 1970 to Rs 2,187 crore in 2009.
“The report reveals the financial viability of mega urban
projects like Navi Mumbai which now stands as an example for the
country,’’ says Cidco’s officiating managing director Tanaji
Satre.
The report reveals that till 1985, Cidco’s income was more
as people bought land but when the agency started building
stations and housing complexes from 1996 onwards, its
expenditure increased. “Cidco earned around Rs 2,473 crore in
2004-05 for the sale of plots,’’ the report said. Its projects
like Seawoods NRI complex created prospects for a better
township. The NMMC has over Rs 1,500 crore in its coffers.
“Use of land, housing and infrastructure at strategic
locations, appears to have been key factors,’’ says Cidco’s
senior statistician Rita Abbi who helped prepare the report.
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