Authorities To Speed Up Development Of Navi Mumbai International Airport!

Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) may become operational sooner than expected.

City and Industrial Development Corporation(CIDCO) has said that the development of the runway and the construction of the terminal building at Ulwe Hills will go hand in hand to speed things up.

Here are the details of the ongoing project –

• The main runway will be made on the south side of the NMIA. It will cover around 260 hectares of land and the area has been levelled by 5.5 meters.
• The next 2.5 meters of levelling will be done to construct the other runways, taxiways and the ‘H’ shaped terminal building for the airport complex.
• Most of the villages around the airport have already been vacated for construction.

The airport project has been sanctioned Rs 16000 crores out of which Rs 5514 crores will be used to develop the 3.4 Km south runway and the terminal building. The north runway will be developed later as per air traffic growth and requirement.

A concession agreement has been signed between CIDCO, the nodal airport development authority and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) which states that a total of 1600 hectares of land will be dedicated for the development of the airport.

There are some issues with the villagers in Ulwe Village and 3 other villages where CIDCO expects to build the north runway and the terminal building. They are reluctant to vacate the land, however, CIDCO has assured that they will solve this problem soon. Their main priority right now is to start the development work of the runway on the south side.

With development work of the runway and terminal building happening simultaneously, it is expected that the new airport will be operational by 2020. This project will lower the pressure of the Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport.