Jyotiraditya Scindia, civil aviation minister, announced on Saturday that Navi Mumbai airport will be commercially operational by March 31, 2025.
The minister had said in Nagpur the day before that the airport will be operating by the end of December. On Saturday, he toured the airport building site and stated that completion by March end would be a “realistic projection with a surprise in its cache if it (the airport) is completed before time”.
NMIA is expected to become the country’s first airport with multimodal connectivity by metro, rail, and road.
However, the timeframe for commercial activities appears to have been revised overnight. Yesterday, when addressing a press event in Nagpur, the minister announced that the airport will be finished by December 31, 2024; today, the timetable was moved back to March 31, 2025.
What does Scindia says?
“It is true that the end of December 2024 was the deadline we were aiming for. Internally, we are still focusing on it. However, one is an overly ambitious prediction that cannot be realised, whilst the other is a realistic one with a surprise in store if accomplished ahead of schedule. I believe in the latter, therefore I’ve set aside three months in the hopes that we’ll be able to finish sooner.” Scindia said. According to airport sources, the trial flights will commence in October 2024.
Scindia held a progress review meeting to discuss the project’s condition and operational preparedness, followed by a comprehensive site tour. Senior officials from CIDCO, Adani Airport Holding Limited (AAHL), and the Maharashtra government also attended the review meeting, in addition to aviation ministry officials.
“We were told to improve connectivity by completing the Ulwe coastal highway, which will join the NMIA to the Mumbai Trans Harbour link,” Anil Diggikar, chief executive officer of CIDCO, stated “We have already issued a work order. CIDCO was also directed to finish the groundwork.”
India’s First Multi-modal Airport
Scindia stated that the Prime Minister wanted every airport to have multi-modal connectivity, as envisioned under the Gati Shakti Yojana. “NMIA will be the first airport in the country to have road, rail and metro connectivity, followed by water connectivity in the future,” the minister stated. “It will be connected by hovercraft to Colaba.”
The minister claimed that the ₹18,000-crore project, which began in March 2018, will greatly help Mumbai’s connection and will be executed in five phases. In the first and second stages, which will commence concurrently,
one runway, one terminal, and a passenger capacity of two crore will be built. Phases 3, 4, and 5 will include the construction of a second runway and four terminals, as well as an increase in passenger capacity to nine crore.
The airport will be connected to the road in three directions: by NH 4B (348), the Sion-Panvel Highway, and MTHL. The railway link would be through Targhar railway station, and metro connectivity will be by metro line 2D (DN Nagar to Mandale-Mankhurd), metro line 8 (Mumbai Airport to Navi Mumbai Airport), and the Navi Mumbai-Pendhar-Belapur-Taloja metro line.
What is unique about NMIA?
The Minister further stated that NMIA will be the first airport to have automated passenger movement over its 1,600 hectares and 10 km on both the city and air sides. The first phase involves the construction of a completely green airport. The government intends to quadruple domestic passenger traffic in the country from 15 crore to 30 crore by 2030. There is also a commitment to build more than 200 airports in the next six years.
The project is projected to revolutionise MMR’s aviation landscape. It is expected to increase passenger capacity by 20 million per year in the first year of operation and by 90 million per year after the last phase is completed.
