In what could be a major boost to the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) project, the Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu visited the NMIA site on Saturday. He was accompanied by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol and Kalyan MP Dr Shrikant Shinde.
During the visit to the NMIA site, the minister conducted a detailed visit to the terminal and the runway. During the progress review meeting, Naidu assessed the project status and its operational readiness. He was also informed about the progress of various connectivity projects which include road, metro and rail providing access to the airport.
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While taking note of the progress of the various aspects, the minister expressed his contentment with the project's overall progress and reiterated the government’s commitment to make the airport operational by March 31, 2025.
While the first and the second phase of the mega airport, that began in 2018, will have one runway, one terminal building and a passenger capacity of 2 crore, the second runway, four terminals along with an increased passenger capacity of 9 crore will be the part of 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 Atal Setu, while it will be connected through Rail by Targhar Railway station. The Metro connectivity to the airport will be via metro line 2D (DN Nagar to Mandale – Mankhurd) and metro line 8 (Mumbai Airport to Navi Mumbai Airport) of Mumbai Metro besides Pendhar-Belapur-Taloja metro line of the Navi Mumbai Metro. It is also planned to connect the airport through hovercraft from Colaba and through cargo from Raigad in the Phase 2.
NMIA will be the first airport in the country with an automated passenger movement within its 1,600 Ha of area for 10 km on city side and airside. The Greenfield airport is expected to cater to the increased air traffic in the country.
Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) Vumlunmang Vualnam; Chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) Sanjeev Kumar; Director of Operations, DGCA, Ravinder Singh Jamwal; Deputy Director, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Chandra Mani Pandey; Regional Director, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), Nikam Prakash Amrit and CIDCO VCMD Vijay Singhal were also present at the review meeting.
