‘Strategically situated’ India builds new US$2 billion airport near Mumbai that will test Modi’s mission, Adani’s ambitions

About 22 miles southeast of Mumbai’s badly congested airport that opened 82 years ago, workers in hard hats are high up on scaffolds building an alternative. Others are flattening a nearby hill to finish the first of two runways so that India’s financial capital can finally have a second airport.

The airport, with a lotus-shaped design mimicking India’s national flower and coincidentally, the election symbol for Modi’s party, should start operations in March next year with capacity for 20 million passengers a year. That will ramp up to 90 million by 2032 if there’s enough demand, according to Arun Bansal, the chief executive officer of Adani Airport Holdings Ltd., India’s largest private sector airport operator that also runs the existing Mumbai airport.

Navi Mumbai airport will be a “perfect” candidate to become an international transit hub on par with some of the world’s busiest aerodromes like Dubai, London, Frankfurt and Singapore, Bansal said in an interview.

“Geographically, India is in a very advantageous situation,” he said. “There’s hardly any country where you can’t fly within 12 hours.”

A wave of plane deals and airport buildouts can aid that ambition. Air India Ltd., IndiGo and upstart Akasa have ordered more than 1,100 aircraft, combined. The world’s most-populous nation is also ploughing US$12 billion into building more than 72 new airports by 2025.

Navi Mumbai airport is one of two landmark infrastructure projects in the city that will test the mettle of Adani, the mining-to-media conglomerate that survived a withering short-seller attack last year.

The other is the redevelopment of the Dharavi slum in the heart of Mumbai, which served as a backdrop for the acclaimed film, Slumdog Millionaire. It’s one of the