Prime Minister Modi lays foundation stone of the Navi Mumbai Airport, dedicates fourth container terminal to the nation

New Mumbai : Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Navi Mumbai airport worth Rs.16,700. The Prime Minister also dedicated to the nation the first phase of the fourth container terminal built to increase the cargo handling capacity of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). ‘Mumbai will be transformed by 2022. Road, rail and air transport will have major changes,’ said Prime Minister Modi at this time. The Prime Minister also underlined that the Central government has streamlined stranded projects worth Rs.10 trillion.

The Navi Mumbai airport was planned to reduce the ever-increasing load on the Mumbai airport. The government had sanctioned this project in 2008. But, delays in permissions from different departments, land acquisition and disputes over the compensation to the project had affected the project. Later, when all the disputes were resolved by the last year, the tenders were invited for construction of the project. The GVK group has been awarded with the tender for construction of the airport.

The Navi Mumbai airport is being constructed on 2,300 hectares of land. The Prime Minister said that the project will be completed in the shortest possible time. He also expressed his hope saying the planes will be taking off from the new airport in 2022.

The Prime Minister said that you will see a transformed Mumbai between 2022 and 2025. The cars will be cruising through the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link as well as the other road, rail and metro projects will have been completed. Water transport would start. Also, the construction of the gigantic statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the Arabian Sea will be completed.

At this time, the Prime Minister spoke about the policies regarding air travel. There are about 450 planes belonging to various government and private passenger airlines whereas purchase of 900 new planes is in the pipeline. The airport coming up in Navi Mumbai is the largest greenfield airport in the country. Thus, the Prime Minister has expressed confidence that this will make air travel affordable to the common people and will also help in promoting the tourism industry. Further, the Prime Minister clarified that there will be stress on development of the waterways also.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has dedicated to the nation, the first phase of the fourth container terminal at JNPT, the largest container harbour in the country. The container terminal has been built at a cost of Rs. 7,900 crores. This will increase the cargo handling capacity of JNPT by 50%. The development of the fourth container terminal has been undertaken with the intention to double the cargo handling capacity at JNPT.

The Prime Minister had also participated in the program to inaugurate ‘Magnetic Maharashtra-Convergence 2018’ conference held at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra-Kurla complex. He interacted with the industrialists during the ‘Global Investor Summit’ here.