Passengers at the Navi Mumbai International airport are likely to be inconvenienced for a while longer after the airport is ready because the main connector between Mumbai and the new airport is likely to be completed about a year later.
Speaking in the state legislative council, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the state expected to complete most of the work on the Navi Mumbai airport by December 2019, while the Sewri-Nhava Sheva Mumbai Trans Harbour Link could take about a year more to finish.
The 220-km trans harbour link will take passengers from Mumbai’s island city to the international airport. Without the link, travelling to the airport will become cumbersome.
“We have received the final bids for the trans harbour link and hope to start work in the next work season. We will complete the major work of the Navi Mumbai airport by December 2019, give or take about two months. The trans harbour link will take about a year more,” Fadnavis said during the question hour in the upper house.
The next work season will start in October post monsoon. For the Navi Mumbai airport, pre-development work involving hill cutting and diversion of a water body are in progress, while work on the actual airport is scheduled to start next year.
The chief minister said that the government was also working on other methods to boost connectivity to the airport, such as through the proposed water transport project on the eastern coast and a Metro rail corridor between the existing Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Marol to the one at Navi Mumbai.