Dhaka, Oct. 8 -- India's new Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) opened on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in the country's aviation sector and offering long-awaited relief to Mumbai's overburdened Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

Built at a cost exceeding Rs.1 lakh crore, NMIA is backed by the Adani Group and aims to handle 20 million passengers annually at launch, scaling up to 90 million within a decade. The project, long delayed by legal and logistical hurdles, gained momentum after the Adani Group took over in 2021.

Jeet Adani, Director (Airports) at Adani Group, called the launch a restoration of balance in India's busiest air corridor. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's support for moving the sta...