Mumbai: As the aircraft entered the runway to take off from the brand-new Navi Mumbai airport, the mind instinctively expected that familiar Mumbai montage. The haphazard maze of blue plastic-roofed slums, the Western Express Highway cutting through a congested city, the sandy sliver of Juhu Beach, and finally the Arabian Sea. But as the plane climbed, the blue roofs failed to materialise, and my mental map faltered. This is Navi Mumbai, new in the most literal way because what unfolded below instead were hillocks, straight roads, clean grids, a concrete jungle of high rises, a city that held its lines straight, one that seemed to have been drawn before it was built. In an instant, my sleep-deprived brain woke up, this is not a takeoff from aamchi Mumbai, this now is our new airport.I was given enough clues early in the day, but I simply didn’t join the dots. Just minutes earlier, I had noticed that the air-side apron and taxiways of the new airport were rather expansive, it was nothing like the tight, stingy layout of the Mumbai airport. That kind of generosity of space cannot escape a Mumbaikar. So, when the aircraft turned into the runway, my thoughts had not yet caught up. Wasn’t the taxi time from the parking bay to the runway longer, I wondered. Not necessarily, it also depends on how far away this IndiGo aircraft was parked from the runway, I corrected myself, making a mental note about posing that question to pilots in the coming days.
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But the first clue had come hours earlier when our car exited the Atal Setu. It was 6.45 am, dawn was breaking in, but I kept my eyes trained on my mobile phone screen, tracing the route to the new airport on Google Maps. In the past few weeks, every time I travelled to this airport for assignments, I had almost always lost my way in the jumble of unfamiliar highways and flyovers. This time I’d resolved, no more getting lost. But when the car came to a halt suddenly and the map showed a stretch of red indicating bumper-to-bumper traffic, I looked up, puzzled. Traffic at this hour? But my view was blocked by huge container hauler trucks on three sides. I instinctively tugged at the seat belt to check if it was locked in place. We were in a Lilliput of a car sharing NH 348 with giant trucks.The last leg of the road trip was breezy with wide roads, no traffic and numerous signages showing direction to the new airport. We pulled up at the new terminal at 7.10 am, I was to board a flight to Ahmedabad. That was merely a ruse to enter the new terminal and experience it as a passenger.A brand-new airport on its first morning doesn’t yet belong to anyone. The glass is polished, the entry gate is framed with flowers, the check-in counters and self-service kiosks are gleaming. Everything is new, and the set-up is familiar only in parts. Pilots and flight attendants who otherwise click-clack their way confidently through airports, stood around, reading signages, looking for directions. Even retail outlet employees who otherwise look jaded are busy taking selfies. By 9 am, the terminal is teeming with the usual fare-paying passengers and groups of dancers and musicians dressed in traditional nauvari saris and phetas. Somewhere dhols are playing out loud, ‘Garja Maharashtra mazha’ blares out later, the mood is festive. Airport inaugurations have changed over decades. Aviation history tells us flying came first; airports followed. Early aircraft rose from beaches and fields. Most airports were built in the 1950s, when commercial aviation expanded and flying shifted to an organised form of transport.Size-wise NMIA T1 is much smaller than Mumbai T2, the distance from curb side to the boarding gate is shorter, a boon for those who hate the long walk. Unlike Mumbai T2, heavy and serious with antiques, NMIA showcases digital art. But despite all these differences, it’s when the aircraft speeds up for takeoff that you realise that this is not just a new airport for the Mumbai region, it’s a new flight.
