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Ministry revives Juhu airport upgrade plan

Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh, Maha CM Prithviraj Chavan discussed the airport upgrade plan on Saturday

Aneesh Phadnis Mumbai
Civil aviation ministry has revived the plan to expand Juhu airport which will enable it to take away traffic burden from Mumbai airport.

Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh and Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan discussed the Juhu airport upgrade plan on Saturday.

"Juhu airport will be very important in view of delay in Navi Mumbai airport construction. There are constraints at Mumbai airport and will not be able to handle additional traffic," Singh told reporters on Sunday.

Plans include extending of Juhu's main runway into the sea to enable it to handle ATR turbo prop planes and even airbus A320 planes.
 

However the runway extension work will require environment clearance and could go through rough weather.

Maharashtra government had informed the civil aviation ministry that Juhu residents could oppose slicing of the beach for runway extension and project could face litigation.

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First Published: Mar 17 2013 | 3:38 PM IST

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