Navi Mumbai Airport to be India’s first with multimodal connectivity: Scindia

Jyotiraditya Scindia has urged CIDCO to expedite the construction of connecting roads to the Navi Mumbai international airport (NMIA).

CIDCO and Navi Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (NMIAPL) press conference by Minister for Civil Aviation & Steel, Government of India Shri.Jyotiraditya Scindia at NMIAL Project Office , Ganeshpuri, Ulwe in Navi Mumbai, India, on Saturday, January 13, 2024. (Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)

NAVI MUMBAI: Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who visited the Navi Mumbai international airport (NMIA) site on Saturday, has asked CIDCO to speed up the work of connecting roads to the airport. NMIA is set to become the first airport in the country with multimodal connectivity through metro, rail and road.

However, the deadline for commercial operations seems to have been redrawn overnight. Yesterday, while addressing a press meet at Nagpur, the minister had said that the airport would be ready by December 31, 2024; today, the date was pushed to March 31, 2025.

When asked why, Scindia said, “It is true that the end of December 2024 was the target we were pushing for. Internally, we are still targeting it. But one is an overambitious projection which cannot be met and the other is a realistic one with a surprise in its cache if it is completed before time. I believe in the latter, and hence I have kept that cushion of three months with the hope that we can do it earlier.” Airport sources said the trial flights at the airport would begin by October 2024.

Scindia conducted a progress review meeting on the status of the project and its operational readiness followed by a detailed site visit. Along with aviation ministry officials, the review meeting was attended by senior officials of CIDCO, Adani Airport Holding Limited (AAHL) and the Maharashtra government.

“We were told to improve connectivity by completing the Ulwe coastal highway, which will join the NMIA to the Mumbai Trans Harbour link,” said CIDCO chief Anil Diggikar. “We have already issued the work order. CIDCO was also told to complete the groundwork.”

Scindia said that the PM wanted every airport to have multi-modal connectivity as envisaged by 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,” he said. “It will be connected by hovercraft to Colaba.”

The minister stated that the ₹18,000-crore project, which began in March 2018, would hugely benefit Mumbai’s connectivity and would be implemented in five phases. In the first and the second phases, which will begin together, one runway, one terminal and a passenger capacity of two crore will be created. The second runway and four terminals, along with an increased passenger capacity of nine crore, will be created in Phases 3, 4 and 5.

The airport will be connected to the road in three directions: NH 4B (348), the Sion-Panvel Highway and through MTHL. The railway connection will be through Targhar railway station, and metro connectivity will be via 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.

The Minister said that NMIA would also be the first airport with automated passenger movement within its 1,600 hectares for 10 km on the city side and on the airside. A 100 percent green airport is being created in the first phase. The government aims to double domestic passenger traffic in the country from the present 15 crore to 30 crore by 2030. There is also a resolve to create more than 200 airports in the next six years.

The project is expected to change the aviation landscape of MMR. In the first year of its opening, it is projected to augment the passenger capacity by 20 million passengers per annum and by 90 million passengers per annum post completion of the final phase.

Amid reports that the radar location had been moved to do away with the issue of height restrictions of buildings, Scindia said there would be no compromise on that. “There is a funnel in the airport, runway landing and so on,” he said. “There cannot be any obstacle or obstruction in its line. Radar and other infrastructure have a radius. Every airport has a different design on the location of the radar. No permission is given in its line. NMIA will follow that and there will be no compromise on safety and security.”