The project that has Cabinet clearance and approval from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will now be taken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for final clearance since the environment ministry has raised issues relating to the site.
The ministry has, in fact, suggested that perhaps CIDCO (City and Industrial Development Corporation) can identify an alternate site within the Navi Mumbai limits.
Several large companies, including the two Ambani factions, L&T, GVK, Tatas and GMR, are keenly interested in building the new facility and were expected to bid for it later this year.
At heart of the issue is the 115 hectares (or 7.3 per cent) of the total land that falls under mangrove forest cover but is within the airport boundary.
In October 2007, the National Coastal Zone Management Authority had cleared the project despite this on the agreement that CIDCO would replant this elsewhere in a nearby area. It also suggested certain other mitigatory measures, which CIDCO agreed to comply with. A month after that written permission was also given by the Maharashtra Coastal Management Zonal Authority.
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Based on this, CIDCO had gone in for a global consultant (Louis Berger), who are in the process of doing the detailed feasibility report and preparing bid documents.
However, even before work could fully begin, CIDCO received a letter from the environment ministry raising objections to the site and suggesting that perhaps an alternative site could be considered.
The site is also considered environmentally sensitive as it involves the