'Navi Mumbai airport to be functional by...': Ajit Pawar shares update during Maharashtra Budget

"The first phase of the Navi Mumbai airport will be functional by March 2025," said Maharashtra Finance Minister Ajit Pawar while presenting state budget 2024-25 on Tuesday.

Apart from this, Ajit Pawar announced that a new MSME policy is being prepared for the state. "Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the government intends to give tap water connections to nearly 1.47 crore households. The government plans to provide 34,400 homes for Divyang people under the Housing for All Scheme," he said.

"The Maharashtra government is planning to build Maharashtra Bhavan in Ayodhya and Srinagar. To acquire land in these two places, ₹77 Crore is being proposed to be allocated. Freedom fighters' pension is being doubled from ₹10,000 per month to ₹20,000 per month. The govt also proposes to make memorials of great personalities like Ahilyabai Holkar, Jyotiba Phule, Lahuji Salve and many others," he added.

All about the Navi Mumbai airport

Earlier, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said commercial operations at the Navi Mumbai International Airport will commence by March 31, 2025. He said in January that 55-60 percent of the work on the project has been completed.

The Navi Mumbai Airport project is being developed by the Adani Group. It is split into five phases and will have a total capacity of handling 9 crore passengers per annum.

The first two phases will have a capacity of handling 2 crore passengers per annum. A press release cited the minister as saying that "the Navi Mumbai International Airport will be the first airport in the country with automated passenger movement within its 1600 hectares for ten kms on city side and on airside.

"A 100 percent green airport is being created in the first phase...," he added.

He added that the second runway, four terminals, along with an increased passenger capacity of 9 crore, will be created in phases three, four, and five.

"Once all the five phases are completed, the airport will have four terminals and two runways," Scindia had said. The work on the second airport project in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region had started in 2018.

The airport will be connected to the road in three directions - NH 4B (348), the Sion Panvel Highway and through Atal Setu.

The Airport will be connected to Rail by Targhar Railway station. Metro connectivity to the airport will be via - metro line 2D: DN Nagar to Mandale – Mankhurd, metro line 8: Mumbai Airport to Navi Mumbai Airport and Navi Mumbai Pendhar Belapur Taloja metro line.

In future it aimed at connecting the airport through hover craft from Colaba and through cargo from Raigad in Phase 2.