FPJ Exclusive: Navi Mumbai airport operations deferred to 2025

FPJ Exclusive: Navi Mumbai airport operations deferred to 2025

The construction work of this airport involves pre-development work, including diversion of Ulwe River, cutting of Ulwe Hill, and many more. The first two works are completed and only one-eighth of the hill cutting remains.

Ateeq ShaikhUpdated: Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 11:44 AM IST
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FPJ Exclusive: Navi Mumbai airport operations deferred to 2025 | Photo: Representative Image

Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) will be operational from the second half of 2025 and not by December 2024 as announced by state government authorities.

The construction work of this airport, which is scheduled to be completed in December 2024, involves pre-development work, including diversion of Ulwe River, shifting of 220 KV and 110 KV high voltage transmission lines passing through the airport area, cutting of Ulwe Hill, and land resurfacing to increase the height to 8 metres and take to well above the high-flood level.

The first two works are completed and only one-eighth of the hill cutting remains, said sources within the government said.

L&T Construction was awarded engineering, procurement and construction work in 2019

The concessionaire, Navi Mumbai International Airport Private Limited, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, had in September 2019 awarded the engineering, procurement and construction work to L&T Construction.

UK-based Zaha Hadid Architects is designing the international airport, the second in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The firm is also designing the Beijing Daxing International Airport and the West Sydney International Airport.

Officials said airport to be ready by December 2024, testing and trials to begin in 2025 before opening it to public

“Construction of the runway and related activities are underway. Earlier, when the project was with the GVK Group, the airport was to be constructed and expanded in two phases and there was an earlier deadline of 2019 for the first phase. Now, the first two phases have been merged and the international airport is expected to be ready according to the second phase’s timeline,” said a senior government official.

By the end of 2019, one runway and one terminal building was expected to be built in the first phase. The airport was to handle 10-million passengers per annum (MPPA) from 2019 onwards, 25 (MPPA) in the second phase in 2023, 40 (MPPA) at the third phase in 2027, and 60 (MPPA) in 2031.

“Construction will be through in December 2024. Thereafter, testing and trials will begin in early 2025, which is when the first flight will land and take off but only for testing and certification. The Director General of Civil Aviation will evaluate readiness on several parameters. Realistically, the first commercial aircraft will take off only in the early second half of 2025,” said the official.

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