Flight Operations May Start At Navi Mumbai Airport From 2021!
Aviation authorities are planning to start regular flight operations from the Navi Mumbai Airport from September 2021.
Civil Aviation Secretary Mr. R N Choubey, who reviewed the progress of the greenfield project in Mumbai recently, said that both the state government and the other stakeholders involved are hopeful of starting flight operations in three years.
He has also said that they are trying very hard to reduce this time and may start flights sooner since not all facilities need to be built to operate the flights. There has been good cooperation between the stakeholders in executing the airport project.
The project is being carried out under the public-private-partnership model and City and Industrial Development Corporation(CIDCO) of Maharashtra has been mandated to execute the project. GVK group is developing the project.
Mumbai International Airport Limited(MIAL), the regulatory body of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, hold 74 percent stake in Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL), while CIDCO holds 26 percent.
A concession agreement has been signed between CIDCO and MIAL which states that a total of 1600 hectares of land will be dedicated for the development of the airport.
The construction cost is expected to go up to Rs 13,562 Crore which is almost 50% more than the earlier projected cost of Rs 9,600 crore.
Once built it is expected that the airport will have an overall capacity to handle more than 50 Million passengers in a year. If this plan goes through smoothly, Navi Mumbai Airport will ultimately have three terminals, with the provision for a fourth. It will be able to handle 120 parked, landing and taxiing airplanes.