AMN / MUMBAI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday laid the foundation stone for Navi Mumbai International airport in Mumbai. He also inaugurated the fourth container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port.
Greeting the audiences in Marathi, Mr. Modi said, it is his pleasure to inaugurate two important infrastructure projects on the eve of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s birth anniversary.
Talking about Navi Mumbai airport, he said, this is the biggest Greenfield airport being developed since independence. He said, the government is focusing on the aviation sector with the aim to make air travel affordable for common man.
He said, the UDAAN project will be working on developing about 100 small airports operational across towns and cities of India. Mr. Modi informed that the government has ordered about 900 new airplanes in the past year as compared to the 450 airplanes currently operational.
On JNPT’s fourth container terminal, the Prime Minister said, the government has started the Sagarmala project to initiate port-led development. He said, trade through sea routes will lead to true globalization; adding that transport of goods through sea route is not only cheaper but also environment-friendly.
Built in record time of 28 months, the first phase of JNPT’s fourth container terminal constructed at an estimated cost of 4,719 crore rupees has already begun operations. It is equipped to dock mother vessels, handle the biggest container ships from a quay length of 1 km, and cranes that can reach 22 rows wide or greater.
The Fourth Container Terminal is being developed in two phases on Design, Built, Fund, Operate and Transfer basis for concession period of 30 years. While the first phase will add a capacity of 24 lakh containers per year, the capacity will increase to 100 lakh containers per year once the second phase is completed by 2022.
On the other hand, conceived nearly two decades ago, the 160 billion rupee Navi Mumbai International Airport is being developed on a public-private partnership basis by City and Industrial Development Corporation – CIDCO and GVK group which runs the existing Mumbai airport. Spread over 1,160 hectares of land, one of the biggest Greenfield airport will have two parallel runways. The southern tip of the runway lying at the base of Ulwe Hills will be built first.
The first phase of the project with a minimum passenger handling capacity of about ten million is likely to become operational by December 2019. The airport eventually aims to have a minimum capacity of 60 million passengers by 2031 as compared to the 40 million passengers being handled by the existing airport currently.
Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Union Shipping and Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari were present for the ground breaking ceremony.