Aviation ministry declines to change Mumbai airport name

~The ministry of civil aviation has strongly refuted allegations that the present name of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is being altered and the location of the statue of Shivaji Maharaj in the Airport is being changed.

?The huge amount of development and construction work going on at the airport had led to the GVK Group that is developing the airport to remove the board with the airport?s name and also shift the statue of Chatrapati Shivaji that stands outside the airport. This led to many people thinking that the name of the airport was being changed,? a ministry spokesperson said.

The ministry also clarified that the Government of India via the ministry of civil aviation had not given any permission for any such change. ?The name of the airport will continue to remain Chhatrapati

Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai and the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji will always remain at the International airport,? a statement from the ministry said.

The minister for civil aviation, Praful Patel, directed the promoters of the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) to keep in mind the local sensibilities while undertaking the upgradation and modernisation of the Mumbai Airport, the statement added.

Some opposition members in the Maharashtra assembly expressed apprehensions on Wednesday that there was a move to change the name of the Mumbai airport and move the Shivaji statue to another location.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?s Gopinath Munde said that removing the Shavaji statue would hurt the sentiments of the around 100 million people of Maharashtra. The statue was unveiled a few years ago by former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the presence of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

Water Conservation Minister Ajit Pawar, nephew of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, assured the assembly that Patel has not accepted any such proposal nor would the statue be shifted.

?Any such allegations that have been made regarding the change of the name of the airport and location of the Shivaji statue are hereby strongly refuted,? the statement from the ministry said. The clarification from the ministry has come in an attempt to stem any spark that could rekindle strong anti-migratory sentiments that led to much violence earlier this year.