Mumbai: Maharashtra Governor K
Sankaranarayanan today favoured setting up of a second
international airport in Mumbai which he said would help
decongest air-traffic at the existing airport in the city.
"Mumbai needs a new airport. We have to take up this
matter urgently," he said on the sidelines of a function
releasing a book on wildlife written by Rajya Sabha MP and
Chairman of the Lokmat Group of Newspapers, Vijay Darda, here.
The long-standing demand for a second airport, proposed
at Navi Mumbai, had recently met with opposition from the
Ministry of Environment headed by Jairam Ramesh.
The Governor pointed out that fuel burnt by planes
hovering over the skies of Mumbai while waiting for permission
to land also causes damage to the environment.
He, however, said there was a pressing need to balance
the concerns of environment conservation with the exigencies
of development.
Apart from administrative and legislative efforts to
protect the environment, there was also a need to inculcate
the feeling of spiritual reverence towards plants and animals,
particularly among children, he said.
A huge bio-diversity park is being created in the
Nagpur Raj Bhavan to conserve the rich diversity of plants in
the Gondwana region of central India, he said.
Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Praful Patel, who
also spoke on the occasion, said that poverty is the biggest
enemy of environment as poor people have to depend on forests
to meet their fuel needs.
PTI
