Maharashtra to invite tenders for Navi Mumbai airport

After the coastal road and the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), Navi Mumbai airport has gotten a boost as the state government will start the tendering process from March. The airport had got the in-principal approval from the civil aviation ministry last month. The official announcement on this is expected soon.

“The civil aviation ministry has given in-principal approval to the Navi Mumbai airport and we are expecting official news soon. We will start the bidding process in a couple of months after the clearance,” chief secretary Swadheen Kshatriya said.

The chief minister had already announced that the first flight from Navi Mumbai airport would take off in 2019. “The airport work will be done phase-wise. It will initially handling capacity of 10 million passengers and it will subsequently increase to 40 million,” Mr Kshatriya said.

The MTHL and Navi Mumbai airport are projects that the state will work simultaneously, the official said. “The two ambitious projects will complete together, else passengers coming from flights at airport will be stuck without the MTHL. The idea for the MTHL was to ease out traffic to and fro Navi Mumbai airport,” he added.

The long pending issue of land acquisition is almost done for the airport and rehabilitation work is on, the official said. “We have given the highest compensation for the locals in lieu of land. They will be getting developed lands as compensation and the development work is underway,” the official said. The city and industrial development corporation (Cidco) is the implementing authority for the airport project.