Mumbai’s New Airport: A Solution or a Commute Nightmare?
12 May 2025 6:11 PM IST
Mumbai’s Chattrapati Shivaji Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world. Last year alone, it handled 528 lakh passengers.
Most people in Mumbai agree that their city needs another airport. To reduce the congestion at the Chhatrapati Shivaji airport, the Maharashtra government has decided to build another one, in Navi Mumbai.
The Navi Mumbai airport is supposed to ease the stress that travelers experience. But, when The Core’s Zinal Dedhia traveled from Lower Parel to Navi Mumbai, and later to Malad, it took a whopping four hours in total. One and a half hours to the airport, and two and a half on the way back.
Already, people in Mumbai spend too much time stuck in traffic. Will this new airport make it worse?
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Kudrat (Host): Mumbai’s Chattrapati Shivaji Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world. Last year alone, it handled 52.8 million passengers. In terms of capacity, the Mumbai airport comes right after India’s largest airport, New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The Delhi airport, btw, is almost five times in size compared to its counterpart in Mumbai.
Most people in Mumbai agree that their city needs another airport. To reduce the congestion at the Chhatrapati Shivaji airport, the Maharashtra government has decided to build another one. The Adani group already owns and runs Mumbai’s first international airport. Now, the group is in charge of building and running the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport too.
The Navi Mumbai airport is supposed to ease the stress that travelers experience. But, when The Core’s Zinal Dedhia traveled from Lower Parel to Navi Mumbai, and later to Malad, it took a whopping four hours in total. One and a half hours to the airport, and two and a half on the way back.
Already, people spend too much time on the road, stuck in traffic in Mumbai, will this new airport make it worse?
Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes—instead, we bring you deep dives into the ‘how’ and 'why' of consumer trends.
In this episode, we’ll speak to The Core’s Zinal Dedhia, who recently published a story on the delayed construction of the Navi Mumbai airport. But, before we get into the conversation, I’ll give some more context too.
For those of you who don’t live in Mumbai–Navi Mumbai, where the new airport is, is already quite far for people living in the Western and Central suburbs of Mumbai. It would take them anywhere between an hour to two and even three hours to get there, depending on where they start from and the traffic that day. You’d need to switch trains too–though the city said they’re going to build a metro to connect the Navi Mumbai airport, Zinal said she didn’t see any signs of that when she visited the site.
A lot of people also don’t know that starting October, the city will move the flights from Terminal 1 of the Chattrapati Shivaji airport to Navi Mumbai. That’s a domestic terminal, which means if you’re flying via Indigo to Delhi, it’s possible that you’d have to travel all the way to Navi Mumbai for your flight. For people living in and around South Bombay, that shouldn’t be as much of an issue, since they can drive there on the Atal Setu. That’s a relatively new bridge that connects South and Central Bombay to Navi Mumbai. The atal Setu begins in Sewri in South Mumbai, crosses Thane Creek, and ends at Uran Taluka in Navi Mumbai.
But, for those living in the suburbs, like Goregaon and Malad, traveling all the way to Navi Mumbai could be a huge hassle. Zinal and I did chat about that, and without further ado, here’s what we talked about→
Interview:
Kudrat: hi Zinal, how are you doing?
Zinal: Hey, I'm doing good, thank you. How are you?
Kudrat: So Zinal, tell me as a Mumbaikar, how long have you been hearing about the Navi Mumbai airport?
Zinal: It's almost been three decades now that the project has been, you know, uh, proposed and that it is, the work is in progress.
And I was surprised, to be honest. I was shocked. It's probably I have like grown through, uh, this entire, uh, time period.
Kudrat: Another thing I wanted to ask was, , so people around you, other Bombayites, mumbas that, you know, what have they been seeing about this airport?
What are their views on it?
Zinal: So I did the. Get some views from friends and families and colleagues on this. Surprisingly, um, many people did not even know that they might be moved to the N Mumbai Airport if they are flying in and out of Bombay. What they thought is that it's probably just another option, just another airport, and probably because they are on this side of the city, they might not.
Stopped for it, but then when I told them in detail, you know, no, it's, that's not the thing because if T one, the, the terminal one will shut down for renovations probably in September, October this year. So then a lot of flights will move to the NA Bay airport. And they said that, oh my God, if that is the case, we might always opt to go either by road or by train,
Kudrat: so, do you travel by air often? And have you used the, you know, originally existing chat JI airport and what did you think about it?
Yeah. So, , I do travel for work or for personal reasons or vacations. So I take a couple of flights in a year. Definitely, you know, if we talk about the, the Terminal Tova International Airport.
Yeah. I have got, I've gotten flights from there and the airport is very well maintained. The airport also looks beautiful, and especially if I say, . It's really located at a very good space, like it's in the heart of the city and for me, who is living in the on the suburbs of Bombay, for me it is convenient to travel to the international airport because it's in vile.
I live in Malad and even if like I have to catch a flight, I might just need to travel like for 45 minutes to an hour during peak hours.
Kudrat: And what would your journey to the Navi Mumbai Airport be for you when you're traveling from your home in Malad?
Zinal: Wow. Personally, I don't know how will I do that.
To be honest, Navi Mumbai is way too far for me. , but I did travel to the airport. I first took a cab from Low Perel to, um, the airport.
I traveled through the, uh, to the bridge. It took me around one and a half hour. And this was also, I started my journey at around one 30 in the afternoon. This was no peak hours. Traffic was moderate, it was fine. So my experience overall reaching Navi Mumbai was good, but on my way back, that was also not peak hours, but it took me to reach from Navi Mumbai to Malad almost two and a half hours.
And I started my journey somewhere around three 13 the afternoon, and I reached home by six. But to be honest, that cab travel was frustrating. And I, on my way back, all I was thinking is that if I really have to do this for catching a flight or also, you know, while coming back from a, from a hectic journey or whatever, this is not something that I would really prefer to.
I mean, if I don't have a choice, of course I don't have a choice. But if I have a choice, I mean, I believe that would be my last option because commuting to that place is kind of difficult at the moment.
. Also, if I think of traveling through, um, the, local, okay, if I have to travel through local to the airport, firstly, if I want to catch an international flight with luggage. I don't think local is going to be my option, and in case I'm lightweight and if I have to travel, , the train journey is also almost an hour and the railway station from the airport is another 15 to 20 minutes.
Kudrat: So do you, will you have a lot of, local trains that you'd have to change in the middle in order to get to the Avi Mumbai airport?
Zinal: Yeah, so what will happen is since I live in Malad now, a direct train from, for, so Navi Mumbai comes on the hard line. Okay. Um, and. To get on the na Mumbai to get on the train that reaches to Na Mumbai. That will be CBD. That will be the stop that I'll have to get off. Yeah. Now the train starts from Goa. I live in Mallard.
Mm. The first leave from Malad, I'll have to go to Goa, which is of course, it's just the next stop, but that's not an issue. But yeah, first I'll have to go to Gogal. From Gogal, I get the train to CBD Bail Airport. It is almost more than an hour. And from there, maybe I'll get like an auto, or I may book a cab or something to reach to the airport, but the entire thing is a hassle because I'm almost training two to three modes of transport, you know?
Kudrat: Yeah. Yeah. That's annoying. Especially if you have luggage in, generally, if you're traveling by air, you have at least one or two suitcases.
So maybe in Navi Mumbai Airport. Has not been the most thought out move for people living in the suburbs like you. But would you say it's convenient for those living in, you know, south Bombay?
Central Bombay?
, I'm not too very sure about people from the central side of the city, and there are definitely a lot of projects going on.
There are, highways and roads being constructed, to connect the every part of the city, like also this airport where it is located. It's also closer to Pune. Now, there is another separate highway that is also being made, for people who can directly, you know, conveniently travel from Pune to the airport.
Everything is in process. Definitely once everything, uh, is placed out, it's smooth. Probably things will get very smoother, but until then it's, it's a hassle and this is going to take some time. If they are planning for the airport to start by June, which I'm not very sure, how will they do that?
But for a Mumbai car to travel from suburbs, travel from, um, the central part of the city, it's going to be a tough time.
Okay.
Kudrat: Is there anything else that you think our listeners should know?
Zinal: Um, you know about this airport, Avi Mumbai airport, which is in construction and will probably open in June, though that seems unlikely from your reporting.
Um, one thing, what I would like the listeners to know is that definitely this is a very ambitious project.
You know, once the airport is operational and also that the vicinity around Adani is probably going to come up with a township, uh, in the vicinity near the airport. Yeah, I'm sure all of this is going to beautify things a lot. It is going to be. Convenient. Probably only, and only if the connectivity to the airport is smooth.
Um, so all I would say is do keep hopes. It's okay. Not that we have a choice, um, but uh, I'm sure like the government is thinking about this and. I'm sure that they will come up with a solution. They do have plans, but the only thing is that once it is executed only then we will know how it works out.
Because until now, if you are on the other side of the table, things do look a little hazy.
Kudrat: That sounds good. Thank you so much for coming on the signal daily. Zil, it was great to have you and we will see you in the future again. Okay. Thank you so much for having me. It was lovely chatting with you.
Kudrat (Host): That’s all for today. You just heard The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the ‘how’ and 'why' of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Daily, follow us wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.
