NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated a brand new worldwide airport within the monetary capital Mumbai, marking a step ahead in growth of the nation’s fast-growing aviation community.
Constructed by enterprise conglomerate Adani Group at an estimated value of $2.2 billion, the primary section of Navi Mumbai Worldwide Airport is anticipated to begin operations in December as a key passenger and cargo hub in Asia. It is going to additionally assist ease congestion on the metropolis’s present Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Worldwide Airport, one of many nation’s busiest. Mumbai is the one metropolitan metropolis in India to have a second worldwide airport.
The newest mission underscores India’s broader push to modernize infrastructure and strengthen air connectivity as its financial system grows and air travels surge. Over the previous decade, the federal government has launched and upgraded dozens of airports to hyperlink smaller cities and enhance cargo motion, aiming to make air journey a key driver of financial development. The variety of airport within the nation has elevated to 160 from 74 in 2014, official knowledge exhibits.
“It’s a mirrored image of a nation that’s rising,” Modi stated in a speech.
India is the world’s third-largest air transport market when it comes to departing passenger visitors, behind the U.S. and China, in keeping with a report by the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation in June. Roughly 174 million passengers traveled from and inside India by air in 2024, accounting for round 4.2% of the world complete.
The Navi Mumbai airport could have a capability of as much as 20 million passengers yearly and as much as 90 million over the subsequent few years when all of the 4 deliberate terminals are operational, the Adani Group stated in a press release.
Will probably be the primary airport in India deliberate to be linked by water taxis along with excessive velocity rail, underground metro trains, roads and freeway networks.