The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has completed diverting the flow of the Ulwe river for the Navi Mumbai International Airport project.
“This was tedious work as we had to level a 96-metre hill. Our target was to finish it before monsoon,” Lokesh Chandra, vice chairperson and managing director, CIDCO, said. Mr. Chandra had inspected the 3.2-km diversion channel on June 17.
The CIDCO had started the pre-development works at the project site in April 2017. “The works include cutting the Ulwe hill, diversion of the Ulwe river, and laying the high tension cables underground. To avoid a flood-like situation in the villages around the airport site, the Central Water and Power Research Centre, Pune, had recommended diverting the flow of the Ulwe river,” Mr. Chandra said.
The CIDCO has given the work of developing the airport to GVK-run concessionaire Navi Mumbai International Airport Private Limited. “Apart from a one-hectare gaothan plot, the remaining land has been handed over to GVK,” Mr. Chandra said.
Of the 10 villages, Ulwe and Kombadbhuje are yet to be vacated. “The villagers of Ulwe and Kombadbhuje were waiting for the new academic year, and hence it was delayed. Till now, 65% of the villagers have vacated. Within a month, the rest will move out as all their demands have been met,” an official from the rehabilitation and resettlement department of the CIDCO said.
Four schools and seven anganwadis, which were shifted out, have been started in this academic year, the official said.