According to statements made to the Newsonair radio news service by Vijay Singhal, vice president and general manager of the Maharashtra Urban and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the airport received its license from the aviation safety regulator on September 30.

The airport will be the second serving the Mumbai metropolitan region and is double the size of the current Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, he explained.

Singhal noted that it is being developed in four phases through a public-private partnership.

The first terminal has already been completed and has an annual capacity of 20 million passengers. Once fully operational, the airport will be able to handle up to 90 million passengers per year, along with 3.5 million tons of cargo, he noted.

The runway was designed to accommodate all types of aircraft, and among its unique features is an automated passenger transport (ATM) system that connects all terminals via underground tunnels, allowing passengers to check in at any terminal and have their baggage automatically directed to the correct one.

The airport will have multimodal connectivity, including road, rail, and waterways.

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