The upcoming green field Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) in Panvel will become the first airport in the country to have multi-modal connectivity upon completion. The airport will be connected on three sides by highways, and will also have metro and suburban rail links, including airport-to-airport metro services. Additional modes of connectivity will include monorails, sky trains, hovercrafts for water transport, and even bullet trains.

The airport is set for Phases I and II inauguration in June, and commercial operations are likely to begin in the second half of the year. In the first two phases, which will commence simultaneously, one runway, and one terminal with a passenger capacity of two crore are getting ready. The second runway with four terminals and a passenger capacity of nine crore, will be created in Phases 3, 4 and 5.

At present, the airport is accessible only by road. After the inauguration of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) or Atal Setu Nhava Sheva Sea Link, a 22 km sea bridge, the Navi Mumbai airport is already accessible for South Mumbaikars within an hour, by exiting either at Ulwe or Panvel exits from MTHL.

Roads Under Construction

A 6.7-kilometre six-lane Ulwe Coastal Road with a width of 60 metres, starting from Amra Marg to Atal Setu (MTHL) junction at Shivajinagar, and ending within the airport, is under construction. Once completed by 2026, that will allow seamless connectivity for passengers travelling via Atal Setu. This ₹1590 crore road includes an elevated airport link of 0.93 kilometres, flying over the Nerul-Uran Suburban railway line and the JNPT Road. The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is developing the Ulwe Coastal Road, has completed 40% of the work and is likely to be operational by next year, according to sources.

Another existing road option for South and West Mumbaikars is to travel by the recently widened Sion-Panvel Highway or Palm Beach Road and turn to the airport from Kalamboli via the JNPT Road. For those from the Thane-Kalyan side, Kalamboli is accessible through the existing Thane-Belapur Road, which runs completely parallel to the Trans-Harbour Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network. The thane-Kalyan belt also has a connection road via Taloja near Panvel.

Kalamboli near Panvel, the key gateway to the Navi Mumbai airport and situated at the junction of 5 highways - the Sion-Panvel highway, Panvel bypass, NH-4, NH-17 and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway - is undergoing a massive transformation. The two-level interchange project, expected to cost over ₹500 crore, will have five roads of 5 km each, seven flyovers of 3 km, and two signal-free underpasses that will ensure seamless connectivity to the new airport and JNPT from all five directions. Work is already underway with a deadline to be completed within 18 months.

Sources with Adani Airport Holdings point out that the new airport is envisaged to cater not only to Mumbai and the suburbs but also to the entire Maharashtra and even Goa. The new airport is accessible to the residents of Pune within 1.5-2 hours via the Expressway. Once the NH66 from Panvel to Goa upgrade is complete by June, passengers from the Konkan regions of Pen, Mahad, Ratnagiri and even Goa can access the new airport within 3-4 hours.

The National Highway 348, commonly called JNPT Road or NH348 and previously known as NH-4B has now been expanded into a 6-lane access-controlled expressway. The final connection to the airport is progressing. It is a 28-kilometre road starting from Palaspe near Panvel and can reach the airport from Kalamboli in 10-15 minutes. After the completion of Kalamboli interchanges, seamless cargo and passenger movement to the airport and JNPT Port will be possible, they note.

Rail & Sky Trains

The Panvel railway station on the Harbour Line is being transformed into a major rail terminus for outstation trains. Already, Panvel is connected by rail to the Konkan region and Gujarat. Similarly, about 70% of work has been completed on the new Panvel-Karjat suburban railway corridor, a ₹2782 crore project being implemented by the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC). The line is expected to open by December.

The new airport is accessible through a 27-km ‘fourth suburban corridor’ of the Belapur/Nerul-Kharkopar-Uran suburban line. The nearest suburban railway station is at Targhar railway station, which will also become the main link station to the new airport from CST and central suburbs like Thane and Kalyan. In future, it will have three modes of transport - passengers can catch an elevated sky train or monorail to the airport, a metro train or the CST-Panvel elevated rail link.

Metro Trains

The state authorities are betting big on international-level connectivity to the airport with multiple metro lines. The CIDCO is going to develop a Navi Mumbai Airport Express Line Metro, linking NMIA and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). A 34 km metro route, the corridor includes 25.8 km of elevated tracks and 8.2 km of underground sections, featuring 20 stations — 14 elevated and six underground. The under-construction metro line 2D (DN Nagar to Mandale-Mankhurd), Metro Line 8 (Mumbai Airport to Navi Mumbai Airport) and the Navi Mumbai-Pendhar-Belapur-Taloja Metro Line will connect to the airport. Navi Mumbai Metro Lines 2, 3 and 4 have also been planned from Taloja to Khandeshwar, reaching NMIA from the east.

With an estimated cost of ₹15,000 crore, the airport-to-airport Metro Line 8 will be a joint venture between CIDCO and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The MMRDA, in collaboration with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), will construct the 11.1-km stretch from CSMIA to Mankhurd, while CIDCO will oversee the extension from Mankhurd to NMIA. This metro line is projected to handle 22.7 lakh daily passengers by 2061, managing a peak hour peak direction traffic (PHPDT) of 37,000 commuters. 

Hovercrafts & Bullet Trains

Another state government plan is to connect the airport through hovercrafts from Colaba and cargo ferries from Raigad. The Maharashtra government is soon launching a dedicated water taxi network throughout the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to alleviate road congestion and reduce pollution. Hovercrafts or water taxis can help access the airport within 20 minutes from the Colaba side, compared to the current travel time of over 1.5 hours.

Another plan of the state government is to have a station (among 11) near the airport in the proposed Mumbai-Hyderabad High-Speed Rail (MHHSR) project, a modern bullet train plan that will connect Maharashtra and Telangana, which will cover a distance of over 750 kilometres in less than 4 hours.