Cost escalation and delays in the expansion of Mumbai international airport have attracted the attention of civil aviation minister Ajit Singh. He, along with Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, will review the project status on June 18. It was to come up by December 2012, but the new integrated terminal will now be ready only in the last quarter of 2013.
Chavan said the expansion of Mumbai airport was crucial. “Officials with MIAL (Mumbai International Airport Ltd) will make the presentation to us,” he told Business Standard. “Also, (realty company) HDIL, which has constructed houses for slum dwellers to be rehabilitated, would be called to give the present status.”
The work on the new terminal building began in February 2009, but hit a road block as the state government dithered on relocating a Chhatrapati Shivaji statue because of opposition from political parties. Currently, the airport handles 30 million passengers a year, but the proposed terminal is being designed to handle 40 million travellers annually. The statue was finally shifted in August last year, clearing the way for project completion.
The elevated road connecting highway to the new terminal, too, has faced delays because of encroachment and delays in slum rehabilitation.
As for the rehabilitation of slum dwellers situated on the airport land, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority informed that 11,000 tenements were already ready at Kurla in northeast Mumbai and 18,000 tenements were under various stages of construction at seven locations in Kurla, Mulund and Nahur. They would be complete in a year-and-a-half, according to S S Zende, CEO of the Authority.
“Currently land procurement is underway,” he told this newspaper. “The total land required for rehabilitation would be around 160 hectares. The total number of slum families on airport land is 80,000. Shifting of eligible slum dwellers is the responsibility of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.”
Zende, quoting the agreement singed in 2007 between MIAL and HDIL, said the slums were to be resettled in seven years.
An MIAL spokesperson confirmed that the new terminal would be ready by last quarter of 2013, and a new air traffic control tower would be completed by the end of this calendar year.
The cost of Mumbai airport development was originally pegged at Rs 9,800 crore, but it was later revised twice. According to MIAL, the project cost was revised because of inclusion of additional works such as construction of ATC tower, elevated airport road, widening of the Mithi river and relocation of Chhatrapati Shivaji statue. These works led to an escalation in the project cost to Rs 10,453 crore.
MIAL, in its submission to Airport Economic Regulatory Authority in January, said it will raise Rs 8087 crore to finance the works. This includes Rs 4231 crore debt and balance which consists of accruals, real estate development deposits and development fee which it collected before the Supreme Court ban. The airport operator said it was facing a shortfall of Rs 2,366 crore and requested the AERA to sanction the development levy on departing passengers. That fee was approved recently. Subsequently, the project cost was revised again -- and has been pegged at Rs 12,380 crore. MIAL said the cost went up further because of pre-operative expenses, contingency, change in scope and variance in estimates.
