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Atop scaffolds, approximately 22 miles southeast of the heavily packed airfield that opened in Mumbai 82 years ago, are hard-hatted laborers building a substitute. For the completion of the first of two facilities and eventually build a second airport in India’s financial capital, others are bringing down a next door mountain.
The $2.1 billion project led by the Adani Group in the so-called satellite town of Navi Mumbai is, in many respects, a microcosm of the vast infrastructure reform that India is undergoing as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to overtake China. Gautam Adani is putting his ability to turn India into a significant aviation center to the test.
The airport, which has a lotus-shaped design that resembles India’s national flower and also seems to be Modi’s party’s electoral emblem, is expected to open in March of the next year and have the ability to handle 20 million people annually. If there is sufficient demand, that will increase to 90 million by 2032, according to Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. CEO Arun Bansal.
In an interview, Bansal pointed out that Naval Mumbai Airport will be a “perfect” candidate to grow into a global transportation hub that can contend with the largest airports in the world, such as Dubai, London, Frankfurt, and Singapore.
“India is in a very fortunate position geographically,” he said.
“It is rare to find a country where flying is not possible in 12 hours.”
This goal may be aided by a surge of aircraft sales and airport expansions. Together, Air India Ltd., IndiGo, and newcomer Akasa have placed orders for around 1,100 aircraft. The most populated country in the world is also investing $12 billion to construct more than 72 new airports by 2025.
India’s Travel Boom
Source: Directorate General of Civil Aviation
The international traffic for October-December period hasn’t been released yet.
One of the greatest infrastructure projects in the city, the Navi Mumbai Airport, will put Adani, the mining to media conglomerate that survived a failed short-seller strike last year, to the test.
The other is the restoration of Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, which was used as the setting for the widely recognized movie Slumdog Millionaire.
It’s one of the largest and densest slum clusters in the world, with families of six frequently residing in 100-square-meter tenements or 80 individuals sharing a single bathroom.
Global Logistics
These kinds of activities are essential to Modi’s goal of transforming India an economically successful nation by 2047. However, it won’t be simple.
The Adani group started a project that was completely unprecedented in an effort to gain a larger portion of the worldwide logistics market.