Mumbai Won’t Have A Second Airport For At Least Five Years: Sole Bidder
Navi Mumbai airport will miss the 2019 deadline, says sole bidder’s top boss.
The sole bidder for the proposed airport at Navi Mumbai, Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL), says the city will not get a second airport for at least five more years.
The GVK-led operator, which runs the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport, was the only company to submit its proposal for the new airport, forcing the nodal authority to extend the deadline for the second time. MIAL’s chief executive officer Rajeev Jain told BloombergQuint that it is very difficult to build an airport within the next two years.
Government has said 2019; maybe a helicopter will fly in 2019, (but) not an airplaneRajeev Jain, CEO, MIAL
Jain said the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) needs to complete a lot of work before the land can be handed over to the developer.
Groundwork will not be over before two years, specially since the affected villagers are yet to be relocated, he said. “That is their biggest challenge because shifting requires a lot of efforts. But CIDCO is quite proactive in that now,” Jain said.
Total time that we are looking at is four-and-a-half to five years for the airport to come up.Rajeev Jain, CEO, MIAL
"February 13 is the last extension for bids to submitted. That’s what CIDCO has indicated. They have given in writing this is the last extension," Jain said.
Space Crunch
Mumbai’s existing airport, which was built with a capacity of 40 million fliers a year, has reached a saturation point, according to Jain. The current capacity of the airport has already touched 45 million and is likely to hit 55 million passengers in the next two years.
"We are in the midst of a capacity crisis. Mumbai now needs a third airport.” To ease the traffic overflow at the existing airport, Navi Mumbai airport proposal needs to be fast-tracked, he said.
Future Plans
Jain said GVK Infrastructure is also interested in bidding for the proposed Nagpur Airport. But when asked how the company plans to raise funds for it, he said, “It is challenging. But we will manage.”
On why the infrastructure player not bid for the airport at Mopa in Goa, Jain said their internal assessment showed only limited gains from building a second airport in the coastal state.