"Rs 18000 core project; 55 pc work completed": Jyotiraditya Scindia on Navi Mumbai Airport

Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 13 (ANI): Stating that the Rs 18,000 crore Navi Mumbai International Airport will be completed by March 2025, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Saturday said that 55 per cent of the project work has been already completed.
After the onsite visit to the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL) project site, Scindia held a meeting with all stakeholders including the officials from CIDCO and Adani group.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting on Saturday, the Civil Aviation Minister said, "I had a review meeting with the concerned officials and took stock of the ongoing work of Navi Mumbai Airport. It's a Rs 18,000-core project, 55 per cent of which has been completed till now. Commercially, this will be started by March 31, 2025. It will be a five-phased work. In the initial two phases, it will have a total of 2 crore people's capacity and in all five phases, it will be a four-terminal and two-runway airport with a capacity of 9 crore people."
Scindia said that the airport will be connected by three roads.
"I want to thank the administration of Maharashtra for all their cooperation. This airport will be connected by three road routes, including the Sion Panvel Highway, Atal Setu and another road that will be directly connected to this airport," he said.
"I took a meeting for over an hour with all the stakeholders, including representatives of the state government, where I was assured by everyone that work would be done smoothly and in a timely manner," Scindia added.
The Civil Aviation Minister informed that the airport will have a 1600-hectare area and over 10 kilometres of automated passenger movement area. It will also be connected with a multimodal hub in the vicinity of the airport.
"We expect and estimate that in the next 6 years, the domestic passenger movement will double and will have 30 crore passengers," he added.
Referring to the time by which the construction of the airport will be completed, Scindia said, "We have the target of December 2024, but we have also kept a cushion of 3 months and are expecting that the deadline will be March 2025. But I am still hoping that it will be finished before the deadline and December 2024 is still possible."
Meanwhile, on Friday, Scindia also inaugurated the AAR-Indamer Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Nagpur.
Addressing the inauguration event, Scindia applauded the growth of the civil aviation sector in India and said that the sector has enjoyed a historical journey.
"Civil aviation has enjoyed a historical journey in India and the sector is over 100 years old. The sector has assumed tremendous scale and proportions and offers vast opportunities. The order placed by Air India for 470 aircraft, 250 from Airbus and 220 from Boeing, and the order of 500 aircraft by Indigo is not only the testimony to the capability of India's civil aviation potential, but it also tells you a story of the future that is about to unfold in India," the Civil Aviation Minister said.
Later, while speaking to reporters, the minister said, "...For a long time now, international hubs have been based in the eastern or western countries. We want an international hub within India. We are making an effort to initiate this in Delhi."
The minister said that they are holding discussions with Delhi Airport, Air India and IndiGo.
"We are holding discussions with Delhi Airport, Air India and IndiGo. We are trying to build an architecture for domestic-to-international, international-to-domestic and domestic-to-domestic so that point-to-point traffic goes from India to abroad, comes to India from abroad, and in the days to come, the traffic going from abroad-to-abroad halts in India and then continues its journey," the minister added. (ANI)