Gautam Adani arrives at Navi Mumbai International Airport for final inspection ahead of inauguration by PM Modi

Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, arrived at Navi Mumbai International Airport on Tuesday for a round of inspections and preparations to finalise the inauguration of the much-touted airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the official date of the inauguration is not confirmed by the Prime Minister’s Office, the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (CIDCO), or the Maharashtra government. However, it is expected that PM Modi will inaugurate on October 8. 

The much-awaited greenfield airport in Ulwe near the Panvel suburb in Navi Mumbai is touted to usher in a new era in the development of Navi Mumbai, the first planned satellite city of India’s financial capital, Mumbai. NMIA will be the second airport for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and is envisioned to alleviate traffic congestion at the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Andheri, the Western suburbs. 

The project spans an area of 1,160 hectares and is scheduled for completion in five phases. In the launch phase, the airport will have the capacity to handle 20 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and handle 0.5 Million Metric Tons (MMT) of cargo. Terminal 2, Terminals 3 and 4, and the second runway are scheduled for completion in the coming years, with Terminal 2 expected to be finished by FY 2028-29. After completion, the airport will be able to carry 90 million passengers.

The inauguration of the Navi Mumbai International Airport will also mark the end of a three-decade wait for a second airport in the MMR. It was earlier expected that the airport would be inaugurated on September 30.

In 1997, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) decided to identify new sites suitable for a second airport near Mumbai, to address the increasing future traffic and the inability to further expand Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. A committee formed for the purpose found a site at Mandwa–Rewas, but it had the option of constructing only one runway. 

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) ’s sub-committee found the Navi Mumbai site in the Uran-Panvel belt suitable and suggested that CIDCO carry out a detailed Techno-Economic Feasibility Study (TEFS), which was completed by 2001. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) conducted a simulation study and gave a green signal for the seamless operation of two airports in Mumbai. By 2007, CIDCO submitted a Project Feasibility and Business Plan Report to the MoCA, and the project received in-principle approval from the Union Cabinet in July 2007.

In January 2008, CIDCO appointed Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) to prepare the master plan, and soon the Government of Maharashtra granted approval for development of the project on a Public-Private Partnership basis. CIDCO was appointed as the nodal agency to implement the project. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) also gave its clearance in 2008.  

CIDCO invited global tenders for requests for qualification (RFQ) in February 2014. There were four serious bidder consortia: GMR Group, the GVK-led MIAL, Hiranandani Group-Zurich Airport, and Mia Infrastructure, along with Tata Realty and Infrastructure. After several rounds of scrutiny and rebidding, the project was finally awarded to the GVK-led MIAL in February 2017.

However, the Adani Group took over the management of the airport in 2021, following its acquisition of GVK’s Mumbai airport. CIDCO handed over the entire 2,866 acres of land to Adani by July 2022. Thereafter, construction was in full swing.

“Delivering this airport has been a monumental task. Our team and stakeholders have truly made a difference—both literally and figuratively. The project involved complex challenges, including rerouting an entire river system around the site. Despite these hurdles, the journey has been immensely rewarding, showcasing our ability to execute large-scale infrastructure with precision and resilience,” Jeet Adani , director of Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), a subsidiary of the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises , told Fortune India in an interview in June.