Navi Mumbai International Airport to be fully functional by 2019, Maharashtra governor tells Assembly

Mumbai: The proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport is expected to be operational in three years and the first flight is targeted to take off from there in 2019, Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao said on Wednesday. “The Navi Mumbai International Airport has received excellent response in the qualifying round of global tenders. It is targeted that the first flight take off from there in 2019,” Rao announced in his address to a joint sessesion of Maharashtra legislature at the beginning of the budget session which began on Wednesday. In preparation for the new international airport, the CIDCO will develop a Smart City, NAINA, which comprises 30 towns around the airport, he said, adding this will focus on work areas pertaining to education, medical, entertainment, logistics, commerce, science, industry, etc, and the government has already notified an area of 600 square km. for it. [caption id=“attachment_2665486” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao in a file photo. AFP [/caption] Simultaneously, CIDCO will invest Rs 35,000 crores to develop the South Navi Mumbai as a brownfield Smart City covering seven towns over an area of around 7,700 hectares. In this, the main focus would be on projects like affordable housing, metro corridors, economic and infrastructure development projects along with Port City Development, scheduled for completion by 2019, Rao said. Supplementing these would be other major infrastructure projects in and around Mumbai and elsewhere in the state, including construction of the new bridge across Thane Creek to ease congestion between Mumbai-Navi Mumbai, will be taken up this year. The proposed coastal highway project in Maharashtra will promote industries, tourism and defence requirements, and this year work will start on the ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway which will be the longest Greenfield expressway in India, said Rao. Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will be the implementing agency for the Thane-Borivali Tunnel Road, Thane-Ghodbunder Road, Kon-Kalyan-Dombivali-Shilphata elevated road, four-laning of Wakan-Pali-Khopoli Road and 27 railway overbridges in Vidarbha. Elsewhere in the state, the government has completed over 263,000 kms out of a targeted 337,000 kms of roads under the development programme of 2001-20021, including converting 6,800 kms of state highways into national highways, he said. The government plans to form “Maharashtra Railway Infrastructure Development Company” as a JV with the railways ministry to expedite implementation of railway projects in the state. The government will participate by way of equity in port-rail connectivity projects for Jaigad Port and Dighi Port and also buy 26 percent shares in satellite port project of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust at Wadhwan. While the Belapur-Pendar Metro Project, 11 kms in Navi Mumbai will be completed in July 2017, and work on the Mumbai Metro Rail Line 3, Nagpur Metro and Pune Metro projects will commence soon, he said. Out of 118 km Metro Rail Project planned for next 3-4 years, the Dahisar to Dadabhai Nauroji Nagar route of 18.5 km and the Dahisar (East) to Andheri (East) route of 16.5 km with an estimated cost of Rs.12,000 crore have been approved, the governor said. IANS