PM Modi Lays Foundation Stone Of Navi Mumbai Airport

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone of the Navi Mumbai International Airport site in Panvel, nearly 21 years after it was mooted. The first phase the Rs 16,700-crore project is expected to be completed by 2019.

“We said why not people who wear ‘hawai chappal' should use ‘hawai jahaj'... There were about 450 operational airplanes in the country, but in the last one year, 900 new aircraft were booked to order in last one year,” he said at the event. The growing aviation sector will boost tourism sector as well, he added.

Delayed largely due to land acquisition, the state last month gave a letter of approval to Mumbai International Airport Ltd., 74 percent owned by GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd. and 26 percent by the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd., the nodal agency.

“This is the country's largest greenfield airport... Navi Mumbai airport will have capacity of handling 60 million passengers,” said Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra. He added that a dedicated metro corridor between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai is being constructed.

Fadnavis said he is confident that the first flight from the airport will take off by December, 2019 and that the airport will help grow Maharashtra's GDP by 1 percent.

The airport complex, to be spread over 2,268 hectares, and will have two parallel runways, unlike the existing Mumbai airport where the runways cross each other, making simultaneously use difficult. The Mumbai airport, which handled 45.2 million passengers in the last financial year, has been facing a capacity crunch. According to CAPA, the airport will reach its maximum design capacity of 48 million by March.

Also Read: GVK Power Signs Agreement To Develop Navi Mumbai Airport

The Navi Mumbai's airport's core area consists of a hillock, river, and marshland. The pre-development work, which includes diverting the river, shifting high-voltage lines and flattening a hill into a plateau that will be 5.5 metres above the sea level would cost around Rs 3,500 crore.

Along with this, about 3,000 families will have to be shifted. So far, 400 families have been moved, said Cidco officials.

To improve connectivity to the airport, the state has planned high-speed corridors such as the Metro line and the Mumbai -Trans Harbour Link, a 22-km link road connecting Mumbai with the twin city of Navi Mumbai. It's is expected to be completed by 2023.