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Villagers launch protest against new Bombay airport project

A renewed agitation was launched today by the 14-village Shetkari Macchimar Bachaon Samiti in the Mandwa-Rewas district against the Maharashtra government proposal to build a second international airport near Bombay.

Locals, including school-going children, sang songs, raised slogans, displayed placards and took out processions.

Former state legislator Datta Patil said the project raises the bogey of development and handling of increased air traffic, but the proposed international airport would devastate and displace the villagers. ''We are not opposed to development but a rethinking on the kind of development best suited (to the locals) should be undertaken.''

However, Damodar Tandel, president of the Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kriti Samiti, alleged that the proposal is murky and points to vested interests. Disclosing figures, he said the UK firm Mott Macdonald had built an airport in Hong Kong at a cost of Rs 60 billion, but the airport at Mandwa-Rewas is sought to be built at a cost of Rs 130 billion. Tandel demanded an explanation for the Rs 70 billion difference.

A researcher named Smita Mhatre alleged that the whole project is a smokescreen for other projects. Citing the example of the proposed modern airport near Bangalore, she said at the time the land was acquired for industrial development. However, when the issue was taken up in the Supreme Court it was allowed as the project was in the public interest. Under the garb of 'public interest' something else maybe on the cards, she feared.

Former Air-India official Captain Mathur said a 30-member committee comprising officials from the International Airports Authority, bureaucrats, Parliament member Murli Deora and a few others, was appointed at the behest of Union Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar. Its findings after two sittings was that Bombay needs a second airport and the group in its presentation suggested that Kopar in New Bombay is a better site for the project.

Captain Mathur, however, rejected this need saying the facilities and infrastructure of the present airport should be upgraded. There was enough land to extend the existing capacity, he added.

UNI