PM Narendra Modi targets Congress at Navi Mumbai airport ceremony

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the previous Congress-led regime stalled infrastructure projects and accorded low priority to the aviation sector. He spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Navi Mumbai airport project.

 

The Maharashtra government has said the first phase of the Navi Mumbai airport, comprising a single runway and terminal, would be operational by December 2019.

 

The airport was conceived during Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's tenure in 1997. Modi said the project had remained on paper for all these years. He said stalled projects valued over Rs 10 trillion have been kickstarted by his government. "In the past, we did not even have a national civil aviation policy," he said, outlining his government's effort to increase air connectivity and making it affordable.

 

The Navi Mumbai airport is being developed by the GVK group-run Mumbai International Airport and the state government's City and Industrial Development Corporation, in a 74:26 joint venture.

 

The initial concession period is 30 years, extendable by another 10 years. Last February, the GVK group won the bid to develop the airport, offering 12.6 per cent revenue share to the government. CM Devendra Fadnavis said the airport would add at least one per cent to the state's gross domestic product.

 

In the first phase, the airport will have passenger-handling capacity of at least 10 million a year. Eventual capacity, after four phases, will be 60 million, making it largest in the country.