Navi Mumbai airport likely to be operational in 2020

The government expects to complete the first phase of the Navi Mumbai airport in 2020 by making one runway and one terminal operational.

GVK Group has won the bid to operate the airport, which would help in easing the severe air traffic congestion at the Mumbai aerodrome.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha today said the situation pertaining to the Navi Mumbai airport is "complicated" due to various factors, including resettlement issues.

Looking at all of that, it is going to take significant amount of time to resolve those issues and actually get the airport built, he added.

"We are looking at it in phases and our hope is that sometime in 2020 or so, we will be able to get phase one up and running which would mean one runway and one terminal," Sinha said at an event here.

The Navi Mumbai airport was first proposed way back in 1997 and received the government nod in 2007, but got lingered due to delay in land acquisition and getting necessary government permissions such as environmental clearance.

In February, the GVK group bagged the bid to develop the airport.

"We are all working very hard on Navi Mumbai (airport).

It is a complicated situation because the terrain itself is tricky... there are significant resettlement issues. There are 3,900 families still there and we have to resettle them. There are connectivity issues," he said.