Mumbai's second runway on hold

Mumbai's international airport will not have a new parallel runway until more land is available. Nor will it have a separate terminal for budget airlines unless the government offers cheaper ground handling and airport charges.

Unveiling its master plan, Mumbai International Airport Ltd, the GVK group-led venture that has the licence to modernise the Mumbai airport, said it had designed a parallel runway and had identified all the constraints that would come in its way.

"These include rehabilitation of slums, relocation of facilities, buying large tracts of private land and removing a number of private buildings that are obstructing the funnel," said Mumbai International Airport Ltd Managing Director GV Sanjay Reddy. He added that 137 buildings and 42 other structures, including airlines' facilities, were obstructing the parallel runway.

"Addressing such complex constraints cannot be time-bound. Therefore, while Mumbai International Airport Ltd will continue to work on the parallel runway, it has decided to substantially upgrade existing cross-runway operations to meet the growth in demand," he said.

The Mumbai airport has two runways intersecting each other and only one is fully operational. The other one is used only during peak traffic.

The GVK-led consortium had initially planned to lay a runway parallel to the secondary runway and use that space for cargo handling. With the new plan, it will have to sacrifice the cargo complex.

Reddy said the master plan would enable 295,000 air traffic movements a year, against the current 165,000. Cross-runway operations will also handle 44 air traffic movements an hour in peak time, against the current 32.

Of the total land meant for the airport, 78 acres were carved out in the licence agreement with the government. The actual encroached land is 262 acres against the government estimate of 147 acres, land under litigation is 34 acres, and the operational area is only 936 acres.

Reddy said there would not be exclusive terminals for national airlines or private airlines.

During the interim phase, till 2008, Mumbai International Airport Ltd will refurbish Terminal 2B to include new lounges and retail outlets. It will also upgrade airside runway facilities and upgrade check-in counters and boarding bridges in Terminal 1A.