Zaha Hadid Architects wins bid to design Navi Mumbai International Airport

The upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport is expected to augment the passenger capacity of Mumbai's existing Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (featured here) with an annual capacity of 60+ million passengers by 2032.

Mumbai’s Second International Airport: Four Phase Construction

The Navi Mumbai International Airport is planned in four phases, with construction expected to start in 2017 and completion expected by 2032. The Navi Mumbai International Airport facility will be capable of handling 10 million passengers a year upon completion of the first phase, 25 million passengers a year in the second phase, and finally, 60 million passengers a year by 2032. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the long overdue airport project on February 18, 2018. The project was greenlit in 2004 when it was estimated that the CSIA — the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, which handles 48 million passengers a year, is nearing its full capacity of 55 million passengers annually. A consortium led by GVK won the bid to develop the airport in February 2017. The bidder was Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), in which GVK has a 74% stake, while the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and CIDCO will hold 13% stake each. The London-based ZHA was selected on completion of a challenging and intensive 12 week fast track design competition amongst the best international architecture firms that were shortlisted by GVK. Established in 1979, ZHA is known for its iconic architecture spanning 950 projects executed across 45 countries. However, the Navi Mumbai International Airport would only be the second airport project that the London-based firm has won the design bid for. The firm is currently finishing work on a new passenger terminal for Beijing Airport (currently known as Beijing Daxing International Airport), which is poised to become the largest aviation hub in the world with 7.5 million square feet of operational space.