India is expected to give the go-ahead for a new airport for its financial capital Mumbai in October.
The site at Navi Mumbai will receive its environmental clearance shortly, say Indian news reports quoting civil aviation minister Praful Patel.
His ministry is expected to issue the tenders for the building works by end-2010 and award them by mid-2011, they quote him as saying. Patel adds that the airport will be constructed on a public-private partnership model, similar to those adopted for the New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore airports.
Officials from India's environment ministry had objected to the proposed site, saying that the project would result in the destruction of a large area of mangroves, diversion of two rivers in the area and the flattening of a hillock to make way for the runway.
However, city officials got around the problem by slightly altering their original plans and shifting some of the facilities.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news