Hope to start operations in Navi Mumbai airport by early 2020: Devendra Fadnavis

Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra could soon enjoy facilities of two airports with the Navi Mumbai airport expected to be inaugurated by early 2020, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on January 15.

"We expect that New (Navi) Mumbai airport will be inaugurated by late 2019 or early 2020," he said.

Union Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu also said that Nagpur would soon be developed as a global maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) hub in India.

The Navi Mumbai International Airport is being developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model between GVK Group subsidiary Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) and City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO).

GVK, meanwhile, refused to comment on the statement made by Fadnavis.

The airport had received government's approval in 2007 and is likely to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore. It will support Mumbai's fast growing air-traffic seen at Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Sources, however, said that while the government wants to complete the much delayed project before Maharashtra goes for state elections at the end of 2019, the first stage of the airport is unlikely to become operational before 2021.

Due to protest against rehabilitation of affected people and slow land acquisition, the project has been delayed for more than a decade. The project, which was originally proposed in 1997, is expected to handle 10 million passengers during phase 1 and will handle 60 million passengers annually, once fully operational.