Bottom Line: The delay of Navi Mumbai International Airport spoils the property rally despite of price appreciation in anticipation.
When Rama Krishnan bought her apartment at Panvel seven years back she was conscious of the fact that her frequent flight to national and international destinations from Mumbai international airport would be challenging. She nevertheless invested in that property due to the promising prospects of Navi Mumbi International Airport. Today, this architect is wondering whether she made the biggest mistake of life.
“For how long am I supposed to wait for this international airport? It seems to me that all the hype with the airport was meant to create the property demand in the region. It is really taxing for me to travel from Mumbai every month,” says Rama.
She is not alone to have invested in a property closer to proposed Navi Mumbai Airport. As a mater of fact, a whole lot of people invested around Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (NAINA). The region has been witness to massive property rally and appreciation in the last over a decade. But the USP of the property rally is yet to be realised to reality.
The property analysts in this part of the world maintain that it is not just about the property rally but the travel time that is making the homebuyers jittery now. Sudarshan Desai, a local agent points out that the homebuyers in and around NAINA have already waited far too long.
“Once the international airport is ready the residents of Navi Mumbai and many other periphery locations of Mumbai will save one to two hours of travel time. Most of them are salaried middle class, small entrpreneurs or salf employed professioanls who bought over here with the promise of an international airport and seamless connectivity,” says Desai.
Three main reasons are cited for the unprecedented delay of Navi Mumbai International Airport. These are:
Land Acquisition & Rehabilitation of affected families
Financial constraints
Very few bidders
The issue of affected families getting rehabilitated has been more or less settled now. But CIDCO is yet to get INR 16,000 crore finance from the State Government after the proposal has been closed. Then the CIDCO had to extend the bidding process due to lesser number of bidders before GVK led Mumbai International Airport Limited bagged the deal a couple of months back.
The long-delayed airport bidding had attracted only one bidder on two revious occasions and the CIDCO was forced to make changes in the project conditions.
However, amidst all these delays Navi Mumbai International Airport might miss the 2019 deadline set by the Civil Aviation Ministry. After all, the airport project has been stuck for nearly two decades due to land acquisition issues.
The anticipation of the international airport has been behind the property purchase in the region. The investors in this part of the world are hence forced to tavel to one or two hours to Mumbai for their domestic and international flights. The ordeal is unlikely to be over in the next three to four years till the Navi Mumbai International Airport actually takes off.
By: Ravi Sinha
