India's prime minister opens a new Mumbai airport built by Adani Group for $2.2 billion

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NEW DELHI (AP) — India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated a new international airport in the financial capital Mumbai, marking a step forward in expansion of the country’s fast-growing aviation network.

Built by business conglomerate Adani Group at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion, the first phase of Navi Mumbai International Airport is expected to commence operations in December as a key passenger and cargo hub in Asia. It will also help ease congestion at the city’s existing Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, one of the country’s busiest. Mumbai is the only metropolitan city in India to have a second international airport.

The latest project underscores India’s broader push to modernize infrastructure and strengthen air connectivity as its economy grows and air travels surge. Over the past decade, the government has launched and upgraded dozens of airports to link smaller cities and improve cargo movement, aiming to make air travel a key driver of economic growth. The number of airport in the country has increased to 160 from 74 in 2014, official data shows.

“It’s a reflection of a nation that is growing,” Modi said in a speech.

India is the world’s third-largest air transport market in terms of departing passenger traffic, behind the U.S. and China, according to a report by the International Air Transport Association in June. Approximately 174 million passengers traveled from and within India by air in 2024, accounting for around 4.2% of the world total.

The Navi Mumbai airport will have a capacity of up to 20 million passengers annually and up to 90 million over the next few years when all the four planned terminals are operational, the Adani Group said in a statement.

It will be the first airport in India planned to be connected by water taxis in addition to high speed rail, underground metro trains, roads and highway networks.