Navi Mumbai International Airport:

Its needed but not in Navi Mumbai now !
Although there is an urgent need for an additional International Airport for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, a deadline has yet to be fixed for construction to begin. The CIDCO's official website states that it will handle 10 million passengers in its first operational year 2012, (previously the CIDCO website stated as 4.5 million passenger in its first operational year 2007) and land acquisitions have still not been completed. Villagers and land holders at the planned site of the airport are unhappy with the compensation paid to them by CIDCO. The site also presents environmental problems in dealing with mangroves and rain/storm water drains in Panvel. There is an NGO fighting government agencies regarding Panvel.
One viewpoint is "World over almost all new International airports are build away from city and a dedicated road/rail is provided for connectivity, reason behind is lac of space in the city and airports need huge chunk of land which is commercially not viable. Presently this proposed airport land is very costly as compared to lands available just 20km outside along Pune NH4 or along Nashik NH3. When compared with the cost of project it is around 10 times more here. It will be more sustainable as well as viable if we create afforable housing at this location rather than building an airport, since affordable housing shortage is shooting up in Navi Mumbai, we can take the airport away at new location and allot the land for housing."
How it should be done !!
The decision to have an airport, and where to locate it, is part of the planning at the level of the government of the city which the airport will serve. Which private party is actually assigned -- or wins the bid -- to build the airport is left to market forces and a set of rules. The actual location for the airport, its design, its capacity etc, must be determined by the private party, not some government bureaucrat who probably did not ever set foot in a well-designed airport. The builder can figure out the details which don't concern the government. The builder can also figure out how the airport will be financed and how they will recover the investment. This they will do based on what the anticipated demand is, and will be in the future, for air transportation. People whose business it is to build airports know about these things. Otherwise they would not be able to survive in the business.