Pic: Navi Miumbai International Airport under construction (From CIDCO website).
NatConnect seeks info from DGCA on the safety of aircraft from the airport from bird strikes.
NAVI MUMBAI, Feb 12 (The CONNECT) – Navi Mumbai International Limited (NMIAL) is yet to apply for licensing from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), information received under the Right To Information (RTI) Act shows.
NMIAL officials did not offer any comments when some media persons messaged them regarding the RTI response from DGCA to NatConnect
Environmental watchdog NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar filed the RTI application with the DGCA seeking to know the steps being taken to ensure safety of aircraft from the airport from bird strikes.
“No information is available as the licensing application has not yet been received by this office,” said DGCA deputy director Dhusar Kumar Mondal, who is also the chief public information officer (CPIO), in the response.
“This is astonishing since the under-construction Navi Mumbai International Airport has already conducted trial flights and the facility is supposed to be operational in less than three months from now,” said Kumar.
He pointed out that Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had even taken an overview of the airport project in a year ago and described the project as a pride for the entire nation.
The Minister stated that the project worth eighteen thousand crores will hugely benefit Mumbai’s connectivity and will be implemented in 5 Phases. The physical and financial progress has been completed upto 55-60%. The project began in 2018 and commercial operationalization is expected to start by 31st March 2025. In the First and the Second Phase that will begin together, one runway, one terminal and a passenger capacity of two crore will be created. The second runway, four terminals along with an increased passenger capacity of nine crore will be created in Phase 3, 4 and 5.
He said he gathered that a committee has been appointed to study the bird flight pattern and presence of birds around the airport area and in within what radius. He wanted confirmation of this.
Despite the NMIAL confirming that biodiversity in the airport project periphery will be protected, CIDCO has not been caring about the city’s wetlands and it was in this context that environmentalists are perturbed over the fate of flamingo destinations, Kumar said.
Hence, he said, he wanted an official confirmation of the steps being taken to conserve the city’s biodiversity and filed the RTI application.
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study and the half yearly compliance report submitted by the Adani group controlled NMIAL to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) clearly stated that the wetlands in the periphery of the airport will be protected as per BNHS recommendations, he pointed out.
Yet, CIDCO has not bothered to maintain the DPS Flamingo Lake and other wetlands as suggested by BNHS. It is a double whammy for the DPS Lake as CIDCO has not heeded to a high-level government committee suggestion to keep the intertidal water channels to open to the wetland, the activist said.
The Committee, appointed in the aftermath of a series of flamingo deaths last year, has recommended to maintain DPS Flamingo Lake as a Conservation Reserve.
The NMIAL reports discuss in detail the issue of biodiversity in the 10 km radius of the airport and say that between CIDCO and the airport project BNHS recommendations would be implemented, Kumar pointed out.
