Govt rolls out airport city plan

 If things go according to plan, one will be able to shop, attend business conferences, go bowling and do much more at the Mumbai airport in the near future. The region in and around the airport's periphery is set to be transformed into a 'nano city'. 

    Two years after itwasstarted,the plan for the first phase of development of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has been approved by a state government-appointed scrutiny committee. It would now be put before chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. 
    While the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA; appointed as the special planning agency for the CSIA-notified area) was late in submitting the final plan to the government, the urban development department used a provision of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act to overcome the resultant lapse. The development plan includes proposals for 677.34 hectares—already notified for the airport's modernization. Another 125 hectares of notified land, under encroachment at 
present, have been earmarked as excluded portion. 
    Modelled on the 'airport city' concept popularized by Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the development plan proposes an overhaul of land-use pattern. It argues that existing land use within and around the airport is non-contiguous and lacks character. The new plan proposes drawing up five land-use sectors within the notified area. Whileoneof these(thecentralsector)willbeused solely for aeronautical purposes, the remaining sectors will cater to hospitality, leisure, tourism and business activities, among others. 
    Bangalore International Airport has already adopted a similar development model. The idea is to transform destinations into hotspots for international passengers, tourists and business travellers. 
    For Mumbai airport, the government has approved a global FSI of 1. Planners have suggested an FSI of 4 for individual plots to improve the quality of hospitality, entertainment, commercial, healthcare and business activities.An international convention centre has been proposed on a 7,500-sq m plot within the notified area near Santacruz for business travellers. 
    While the area around the airportservesbarely 2%of airporttravellers, the new plan proposes the creation of over 11,700 habitable rooms to cater to 15% of travellers. Of the land to be taken up for development, 32.75 hectares will be used for hospitality, 17.5 for entertainment, leisure and retail, 12.5 for offices and commercial activities, 3.55 for a convention centre and cultural arena, and 0.93 for health care. 
    On theoperationsside,the plan is to augment flight handling capacity from 35-38 during peak hours to 43-50 through a network of rapid exit taxiways. This will enable flights to vacate the runway faster, allowing more landings and departures. 
A senior airport official said a network of parallel taxiways is being constructed along the two runways in phases. Once it is ready, the air traffic controller will be in a better position to crunch in more flights in 
    the same space of time, he said. MMRDA seeks entire slum land for devpt P rotests against the airport's development plan are unlikely to die down. While the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) contends that all of 125 hectares of encroached land in the airport's periphery will be reclaimed in phases for airport-related development, slum dwellers are adamant about in-situ rehabilitation. The agency has only included 42 hectares of slum land in the development plan for the time being. But it says the remaining slum area would be needed in two to three years. This area (83 hectares) has been shown as 'excluded portion' in the development plan for now. Slums exist in various parts of the notified area (for example, Kurla, Sahar, Santacruz, Kalina, Agripada and Gaondevi). The MMRDA has asked the chief minister to finalize a policy for rehabilitation of the slum dwellers. Parag Alavani of the Airport Authority Zopadpatti Sangharsh Committee alleged slum land was being sought only for "commercial purpose". TNN