Navi Mumbai airport's first phase to be operational by March-end next year: Scindia

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said the Navi Mumbai international airport will be commercially operational by March 2025. The upcoming airport is not just an important infrastructure project for Mumbai or Maharashtra but is a project of pride for the entire nation, he told reporters on Saturday. He inspected the progress of the work connected to the airport, which is being built in five phases. "The physical and financial completion is 55 to 60 per cent. The project began in 2018 and commercial operationalisation is expected by March 31, 2025. In the first and second phase that will commence together, one runway, one terminal and a passenger capacity of two crore will be created," he told reporters.

The second runway, four terminals with an increased passenger capacity of 9 crore will be created in phases three, four and five, the Union minister added. Incidentally, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devebdra Fadnavis have been earlier quoted as saying that the airport will begin commercial operations by the second half of 2024. Referring to the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create multimodal connectivity under the Gati Shakti Yojana, Scindia said the upcoming airport will have road, rail and metro connectivity with future plans of water connectivity as well.

The airport will be connected to national highway 4B (348), the Sion-Panvel highway and the Atal Setu, the country's longest seabridge between Sewri in Mumbai and Nhava Sheva in Raigad, which was inaugurated by the PM on Friday.

The airport will be connected to Targhar railway station and to metro lines 2D (DN Nagar to Mandale in Mankhurd), 8 (Mumbai Airport to Navi Mumbai Airport) and Pendhar-Belapur-Taloja line, he said. In future, there are plans to connect it through hovercraft from Colaba in south Mumbai and cargo liners from Raigad in phase 2.

Navi Mumbai International Airport will be the first airport in the country with automated passenger movement within its 1600 hectares for 10 kilometres on city side and on airside. A 100 per cent green airport is being created," he added. The Union government aims to double domestic air passenger traffic in the country from the present 15 crore to 30 crore by 2030, and has also resolved to create more than 200 airports in the next six years, he said.