Adani Group's $2.1 billion Navi Mumbai Airport to boost India's aviation ambitions
Adani Group-helmed $2.1 billion project in the satellite city of Navi Mumbai is a microcosm of the massive infrastructure overhaul underway in India as its Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to outrun China. For Gautam Adani, it’s a test of whether he can put India on the global aviation map. The airport, with a lotus-shaped design mimicking India’s national flower as well as the election symbol for Modi’s party, should start operations in March next year with a capacity for 20 million passengers a year.
That will ramp up to 90 million by 2032 if there’s enough demand, according to Arun Bansal, the chief executive officer of Adani Airport Holdings Ltd., India’s largest private sector airport operator that also runs the existing Mumbai airport. Navi Mumbai airport will be a “perfect" candidate to become an international transit hub on par with some of the world’s busiest aerodromes like Dubai, London, Frankfurt, and Singapore, Bansal said in an interview. “Geographically, India is in a very advantageous situation," he said.
“There’s hardly any country where you can’t fly within 12 hours." A wave of plane deals and airport buildouts can aid that ambition. Air India Ltd., IndiGo, and upstart Akasa have ordered more than 1,100 aircraft, combined. The world’s most populous nation is also plowing $12 billion into building more than 72 new airports by 2025.
Navi Mumbai airport is one of two landmark infrastructure projects in the city that will test the mettle of Adani, the mining-to-media conglomerate that survived a withering short-seller attack last year. The other is the redevelopment of the Dharavi slum in the heart of Mumbai, which served as a backdrop for the acclaimed movie, Slumdog Millionaire. It’s one of the world’s
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