Navi Mumbai airport to play significant role in making India aviation hub: Adani group official

Mumbai, Oct 6 (PTI) Navi Mumbai International Airport, which is all set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, will play a "significant role" in making India an aviation hub if domestic carriers like Air India and IndiGo look to create one, a senior Adani Group official has said.

The official also said that the design of the second terminal, which will have a capacity to handle 30 million passengers per annum, is being finalised and the construction work of the building is expected to commence within this fiscal.

The first phase of the Navi Mumbai International Airport, which has come up at an investment of around Rs 19,500 crore and caters to 20 million passengers annually with one terminal and one runway, will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on October 8.

The airport, the second in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region after the existing Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, secured its aerodrome licence from the aviation safety regulator DGCA on September 30.

The project is being developed in multiple phases by Navi Mumbai International Airport, in which Adani Group has a 74 per cent stake, and the remaining 26 per cent with the Maharashtra government's land development authority CIDCO.

Spread across 1,160 hectares, Navi Mumbai International Airport, upon completion of all phases, will have four terminals with a capacity of 90 million passengers per annum and a cargo capacity of 3.25 million metric tonnes, making it one of the largest aviation hubs in Asia.

"In India, we don't have any hub (like Dubai) today. One of the main reasons for India not being a hub is the lack of destination from India directly. So, for one, say 2030 time-frame, when Air India will have their widebody planes, their ambition, they will fly direct to every single major European and the US city," Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) Chief Executive Officer Arun Bansal said during a media briefing on Monday.

He said the majority of Indians going to Europe or to the US are flying through the hubs of some of the foreign carriers, as there is no Indian carrier which flies to all European or US destinations today.

"For that, we need infrastructure. Navi Mumbai will play a significant role in being one of those hubs where Air India or IndiGo can have direct flights to Europe/the US, and we don't need to go through Middle Eastern hubs. That is where three things are necessary," he said.

Bansal said that to achieve this what we need is to have infrastructure, airline capacity and certain regulatory changes like ramp-to-ramp transfer of both passengers and cargo.

Bansal said that along with airlines scaling the capacity and Adani Group building the infrastructure, we are also working with BCAS, CISF and the Ministry of Civil Aviation (for regulatory changes).

"So, along with making Navi Mumbai International Airport a cargo hub, the other ambition we have is to make Navi Mumbai an Indian aviation hub," he said.

He said that all the statistics, all the external studies show that the Mumbai metropolitan region has a capacity demand of around 70-75 million and this way Mumbai as a region is underserved because of the limitation.

"So, Navi Mumbai will welcome, eliminate this congestion part of Mumbai per se. And the location of Navi Mumbai with the connectivity, if you will see, is getting improved. That it will have an addressable region which will then free up the capacity for Mumbai," Bansal said.

He said the airport will be capable of handling both domestic and international operations from day one, adding that the partnership with Akasa, IndiGo and Air India, which has already been announced, will pretty much fill up the capacity.

So, phase one has 20 million per annum capacity compared to Navi Mumbai which has 55 million. So, give or take, you can do 20 to 23 ATMs per hour. So, if you add up the announced capacity from start until the winter schedule next year, that almost caters for all," he said.

Bansal said that the airport operator will, of course, accommodate any other airlines as well besides the general aviation traffic that would come to Navi Mumbai from the existing Mumbai International Airport.

"The eventual plan for Navi Mumbai International Airport is to have 90 million passenger capacity. That will make Navi Mumbai the largest capacity airport in India with two runways. So, in phase one, we are doing with one runway. The terminal two project, we are kicking off at the same time now.

"So, the design work for phase two, we call it phase three because of the nomenclature, has started. And we will start the construction work within this financial year, which will be ready by 2029. Which will have a capacity of an additional 30 million per annum," Bansal said.

The second phase of the project is expected to see an investment of Rs 30,000 crore, he said.

In total, the four terminals will have a combined capacity of 90 million passengers and it can be stretched up to almost 100 million per annum, he said..

He said that the new airport will also have the country's largest MRO facility with five large hangars. "So, we will have an MRO facility. We will have a cargo facility. When fully completed, we'll have a capacity of 3.8 million metric tonnes. This will also be one of the largest cargo hubs. Our ambition is to make Navi Mumbai the hub for cargo as well, he said.

"If you really look at Southeast Asia, India doesn't have a cargo hub. The cargo hub is in Shanghai or in China. And with the Made in India ambition, the growth of economic development, we believe India has the potential to eventually become a cargo hub. So, Navi Mumbai will play a big role," Bansal said. PTI IAS MR