Navi Mumbai airport site preparation work to start from Jan 2015.

City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) plans to start the pre-development work, including relocation of power transmission lines and reclamation of land site, for the Navi Mumbai airport from January.

The work, expected to cost Rs. 2,000 crore and take a year to complete, will commence after the completion of land acquisition later this month. According to Cidco's planning, the first phase of the Rs. 14,500-crore Navi Mumbai airport will be ready by December 2018.

'Our officials are fine tuning the details with the Indian Institute of Technology,' said V Radha, CIDCO's joint managing director. Sources said bids for the pre-development work will be issued next week.

The work includes reclamation of marsh land, increasing the level of land from 0-2 m to 5 m above mean sea level, flattening of hillocks, diversion of the Ulwe river and relocation of power lines. The pre-development work will be funded by Cidco, and the cost will be included in the total project cost.

Cidco is likely to opt for underground cable network in the airport area, instead of merely relocating overhead transmission lines through an alternate patch of land. This is because underground cabling will not require much land. A final decision is yet to be taken.



BS