The state government has had enough.

If farmers do not accept its ‘best possible offer’ for the Navi Mumbai airport, the government will reclaim land from the sea to build the airport. And it has already done the preliminary work.

The airport on sea land between Navi Mumbai and Mumbai will work out much cheaper: only Rs3,000 crore for reclamation work. Whereas the government will spend close to Rs10,000 crore on rehabilitation and development of land if it were to take land from farmers in Panvel.

“We offered the biggest and the best rehabilitation package to farmers. But they are adamant; they don’t want it.

They are placing unreasonable demands and continuing with their agitation,” chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Friday.

“We are seriously considering to develop the airport on sea land. The Mumbai airport is saturated. We need another one... We are in talks with a Dutch consultancy firm [Netherlands Airport Consultants (Naco)], which has the expertise to reclaim land from sea and develop airports.”

The firm has developed Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport, Bangkok aiport and Japan’s Osaka airport in the past.

The state government has identified 1,100 hectares of an island, known as a ‘Madh Island’.

“This island, ahead of MbPT and JNPT, is a couple of kilometres off the proposed airport site in Panvel,” a senior government official said.

“We have to reclaim some portions of the island. After that, the strengthening will be done by putting bolders and sand. Basically, it is the engineering work.

“If they (farmers) decide not to give their land for airport, we will respect their decision,” the official said. He said the reclamation will be completed within the next 2.5 years.

He said the government was ready to give 22.5% of the developed land and a floor space index of 2 to the project affected farmers. “It would have increased the value of their infertile land. The current cost of Rs16 lakh per acre of land would have gone up to Rs16 crore per acre once the area is developed,” he said. “Now, let them develop their land. If they do not realise the value of the airport and given package, what can we do? Farmers think the airport will not happen without their land. They are mistaken...”

Another official, privy to this development, told dna that they had recently made an ‘airport in sea’ presentation before the joint secretary of the environment ministry. “The ministry officials have promised to examine the proposal positively. Once we receive the Dutch firm report, we will submit the proposal to the ministry. We are confident that the ministry will approve it,” he said.

Naco, the Dutch firm, is currently studying the size of various creeks and sea water movement. The official said the firm is renowned for safeguarding the environment. “... They are more environmental conscious than us. They told us that their laws are more stringent than Indian laws.They have all the resources and expertise to reclaim land from the sea and develop an airport without disturbing the ecology,” he said.

“Even the chief minister is in favour of developing the airport in the sea. Chavan is a technocrat. He says people across the world are using innovative technologies... Why shouldn’t we?”

The airport at Madh Island will also help the 22-km Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL).