Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (October 8, 2025) inaugurated the first phase of the Navi Mumbai International Airpor (NMIA) and said this airport would play a major role in establishing the region as one of Asia’s largest connectivity hubs.He also remarked that this new airport would connect Maharashtra’s farmers to supermarkets in Europe and the Middle East, enabling fresh produce, fruits, vegetables, and fishery products to reach global markets swiftly. He noted that the airport would reduce export costs for nearby small and medium industries, boost investment, and lead to the establishment of new enterprises.The greenfield NMIA is built at a cost of around Rs. 19,650 crore. It is expected to be operational in December this year. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi inaugurates final phase of Mumbai’s first fully underground Metro 3As the second international airport for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, NMIA will work in tandem with Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) to ease congestion and elevate Mumbai into the league of global multi-airport systems. To be run by the Adani Group, the airport, designed to be among the most efficient in the world with 1160 hectors area, will eventually handle 90 million passengers annually (MPPA) and 3.25 million metric tonnes of cargo.Among its unique offerings is an Automated People Mover (APM), a transit system planned to connect all four passenger terminals for smooth inter-terminal transfers, as well as a landside APM linking the city-side infrastructure.