ADANI LEADS $2.1 BILLION PROJECT FOR MUMBAI AIRPORT

That will ramp up to 90 million by 2032 if there's enough demand, according to Arun Bansal, the chief executive officer of Adani Airport

- 

About 22 miles southeast of Mumbai's badly contested airport that opened 82 years back, workers in hard hats are high up on scaffolds building an alternative. Others are flattening a nearby hill to finish the first of two runways so that India's financial capital can finally have a second airport.

In many ways, the Adani Group-helmed $2.1 billion project in the satellite city of Navi Mumbai is a microcosm of the massive infrastructure overhaul underway in India as its Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to outrun China. For Gautam Adani, it's a test of whether he can put India on the global aviation map.

The airport, with a lotus-shaped design mimicking India's national flower as well as the election symbol for Modi's party, should start operations in March next year with capacity for 20 million passengers a year. That will ramp up to 90 million by 2032 if there's enough demand, according to Arun Bansal, the chief executive officer of Adani Airport Holdings Ltd., India's largest private sector airport operator that also runs the existing Mumbai airport.