The newly appointed Chairman of City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), Sanjay Shirsat visited the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) project site on Tuesday and reviewed the current status of the project, after he joined last week. Following the visit, Shirsat told the media that the first trial of landing is likely to happen on October 5 wherein Prime Minister is also expected to be present. “Once PM confirms his date, we can confirm the date. As of now we have decided October 5 as tentative one,” Shirsat said. An Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft will land for the trial run on the runway.
He further added that the work of the airport is going on in full swing and by March 2025, Domestic airport would be ready and by June it will be ready for International flights. “There are four terminal in the airport and all are interconnected from underground. This Airport will have double size of parking as compared to Mumbai airport. Around 350 aeroplanes can be parked. Cargo and military has separate place in the airport. This airport is going to be the most developed and advanced airport in the country. Once completely ready, the Airport would be the centre of the city and all other nodes would be connected to it via metro, road, rail,” he said.
Navi Mumbai International Airport is being constructed by CIDCO on an area of 1160 hectares, in two phases. It is the largest Greenfield airport in the country. The airport is planned to handle 90 million passengers and 2.5 tons of cargo per year. Navi Mumbai International Airport will have two parallel runways and two full-length parallel taxiways for separate movement of the aircraft. The concessionaire company NMIAL has taken the development of the airport, which is being developed through a public private partnership. The pre-development works have been completed and the actual airport work has started. Recently, the signal test and instrument landing system test were successfully conducted by the Airport Authority of India at the airport project site.
Last month, the Airport Authority of India completed Instrument Landing System (ILS) testing, which calibrates the flight path to ensure the operational readiness of the airport.
In the visit, chairman was accompanied by Vijay Singhal, VC and MD, Shantanu Goel-Joint Managing Director, Dilip Dhole-Joint Managing Director, Geetha Pillai- Chief General Manager (Transport & Airport), Sheela Karunakaran-Chief Engineer (Navi Mumbai International Project and Special Projects), CIDCO and CIDCO officers related to the airport project.
