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Was browsing through last week’s Economist when I came across this full-page spread on page 84:
This is what the first paragraph reads:
The State of Maharashtra is the third largest and the most progressive and industrially advanced state in India….Mumbai, country’s leading financial, trading and service centre warrants aviation facilities of highest order. To meet the ever increasing demand of aviation, it is proposed to develop a modern state-of-the-art second international airport for Mumbai at Navi Mumbai.
Well, I say, it’s about damned time. This is great news. Maybe this will mean a smoother walk-through and less harassment from Customs and Immigration (without having to call Officer So-and-So, who’s a friend of my neighbour’s dog-walker’s brother’s wife). It’s also a positive sign that our economic infrastructure is being strengthened. And maybe, just maybe, this time we’ll stop welcoming visitors into the country with the fragrant smell of urine.
Yes, I’m certainly all for it and look forward to flying in to the New Bombay International Airport (I refuse to say “Navi Mumbai”). Who knows? Perhaps by the time it’s finished, the esteemed Balasaheb will have long past reached the ultimate tiger fiefdom above and for once, an airport won’t be called “Chattrapati Shivaji”.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Aditya // Sep 5, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Lets hope the airport doesn’t become a victim of bureaucratic processes.
in my estimate, it’d take roughly 10 years to come up.
2 The Great Ganesha // Sep 5, 2007 at 12:35 pm
in that case, balasaheb will definitely have died, and then it will be named after him! seriously though, you’re right. and i would even say that ten years is an optimistic estimate, since this is just a “proposal”. still, let’s see. at least, it’s a good start…
3 becharagrad // Sep 5, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Except now your commute to/from home will be 3 hrs vs 1 hr. Hopefully Sahar airport will still be around!
4 The Great Ganesha // Sep 5, 2007 at 3:14 pm
by the time its actually built, there will be superhighways all across bombay so the commute would not exceed an hour…
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