Dhaka: India's new Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) opened on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in the country's aviation sector and offering long-awaited relief to Mumbai's overburdened Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

Built at a cost exceeding ₹1 lakh crore, NMIA is backed by the Adani Group and aims to handle 20 million passengers annually at launch, scaling up to 90 million within a decade. The project, long delayed by legal and logistical hurdles, gained momentum after the Adani Group took over in 2021.

Jeet Adani, Director (Airports) at Adani Group, called the launch a restoration of balance in India's busiest air corridor. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's support for moving the stalled project forward.

The airport's design, inspired by the lotus, includes two runways and three terminals, linked by an automated people mover. Developers say NMIA blends cultural aesthetics with global best practices in efficiency, retail, and digital infrastructure.

The newly launched Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) has been designed to lead, not just function, combining efficiency with Indian cultural elements in a modern architectural form.

According to Jeet Adani, Director (Airports), Adani Group studied global leaders such as Singapore Changi, Dubai International, Seoul Incheon, and Tokyo Narita to benchmark NMIA on efficiency, retail, and technology. The goal is to match global standards in performance and surpass them in growth capacity.

Unlike older, organically grown hubs like JFK and LAX, NMIA is a clean-sheet development, built to accommodate future aviation trends such as sustainability and digital integration.“The intent and infrastructure are unmistakably world-class,” Adani said.

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