Navi Mumbai Airport to be a boon to the city

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the new Navi Mumbai international airport on Sunday. The new international airport will be made at an approximate cost of Rs 16,700 crore and will be Mumbai's second after Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Navi Mumbai airport set to be a boon for the financial capital city! The foundation stone for the new Navi Mumbai international airport has been laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday. The international airport will be made at an approximate cost of Rs 16,700 crore and will be Mumbai’s second after Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The Navi Mumbai international airport, planned in 1997 was a dream to meet the growing demands of international travelers.

The project which was planned at an investment of around Rs 3000 crore, was delayed due to various reasons including political indecision, issues of environmental clearances and funding. The Navi Mumbai international airport is being developed by the City Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), along with GVK Group. 74 per cent stake of the airport project is with the GVK group while Cidco and the Airports Authority hold the rest of the stake. The first flight from the Navi Mumbai airport is expected to take off as early as 2019!

Presently, the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport has one runway. Mumbai’s second airport will have two parallel runways and they will be capable of handling almost 80 flights per hour. The parallel runways of the new international airport will measure 4,000 metres, each with two rapid exit taxiways. The move has been planned in order to decongest the Mumbai airport which handles around 900 flights per day and is also known as the world’s busiest single-runway. In mid-January, it was reported that the Mumbai airport handled around 980 flights.

The delayed implementation of the project was also due to land issues which affected 10 villages in Navi Mumbai. The international airport needed over 2,268 hectares of land, out of which 1,160 hectares of land will be used for aeronautical purposes, but has not been acquired yet. So far, out of 3,500 affected families, 400 have been rehabilitated by Cidco and each family has been offered amenities like monetary compensation, plots, rent allowances, aid for construction among many others. The families are likely to be rehabilitated to Pushpak Nagar.