Mumbai awaits third airport project

In a major booster to the air connectivity of the area, a third airport on Mumbai's outskirts is going to be a reality, as the Maharashtra government is considering an abandoned airstrip and a 730-hectare plot in Kalyan to be developed as a domestic terminal. The move comes after it was found that the existing airports in Santacruz and Sahar have reached a point of saturation and may not be able to handle additional traffic till the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) is operational, which is expected to happen only by 2020. Though the city has an aerodrome at Juhu but it is only used by helicopters and chartered planes. The central government's plan to boost regional airport connectivity by building 50 new airports at small towns in the next three years will substantially add to the existing load at Mumbai's airports. As such, the state government wants to develop an additional airport immediately, to decrease the air traffic at the city airports, which cater to about 40 million passengers annually. The proposed airport area falls in Naveli, Kalyan, and has an airstrip that was built during World War II. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) looks after the airstrip, while the plot falls under the jurisdiction of the defence ministry, said sources. The 10 airports that have been proposed for the states included- Kolhapur, Shirdi, Amravati, Gondia, Nashik, Jalgaon, Nanded, Solapur, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg under the scheme.