PM Modi lays foundation stone for Noida Airport, Rs 8,914 cr investment in phase 1

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport, which is expected to be operational by September 2024.

Thousands of people, including women and children, on Thursday reached Jewar amid heavy security to witness the event.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his cabinet colleagues, including the state's Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Gupta, will attend the event.

Heavy security has been deployed at and around the event venue. Visitors are being frisked before entering the 'jan sabha' area, officials said, adding that the police have banned black flags.

"The foundation stone of the world's fourth largest international airport, 'Noida International Airport' will be laid by respected Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji today. This airport will give Uttar Pradesh a new global identity. With this, Uttar Pradesh will be the only state to house five international airports," Adityanath tweeted in Hindi.

Rs 8,914 cr investment in first phase

The first phase of the Noida International Airport at Jewar will entail an investment of Rs 8,914 crore and the initial annual passenger handling capacity will be 12 million, a senior official civil aviation ministry official said on Wednesday.

The greenfield airport, spread over 1,330 acres of land, will initially have two runways and Zurich Airport International AG (concessionaire) emerged as the winning bidder for developing the aerodrome.

PTI11_24_2021_000045B — Workers carry a replica of an airplane as preparations are underway on the eve of the foundation stone laying ceremony of Jewar Airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled for tomorrow, in Gautam Buddha Nagar district, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021. Photo: PTI

Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal on Wednesday said the capital expenditure for the first phase of the project will be Rs 4,588 crore. The total cost will be Rs 8,914 crore, including Rs 4,326 crore to be spend by the Uttar Pradesh government towards Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) and land acquisition.

In the first phase, the airport will have a handling capacity of 12 million passengers per annum and once all the four phases of the project are complete, the total capacity is projected to be 70 million passengers per annum.

The total cost of the airport project is estimated at Rs 29,560 crore, Bansal said. The amount excludes the money to be spend by the Uttar Pradesh government towards R&R and land acquisition.

The airport will be developed by Yamuna International Airport Pvt Ltd (YIAPL), in which Zurich Airport International AG has 100 per cent shareholding.

The concession period for the airport is 40 years and NIAL will have one per cent "golden share" in YIAPL as well as the rights to appoint two directors on the YIAPL board.

NIAL has been set up as a company for the Noida International Airport. The UP government and the New Delhi Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) will have 37.5 per cent stake each in NIAL. The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) have 12.5 per cent stake each in the company.

Noida airport — Security personnel check their phones as preparations are underway on the eve of the foundation stone laying ceremony of Jewar Airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled for tomorrow, in Gautam Buddha Nagar district, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021 Photo: PTI

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the concessionaire and the Union government for reserve services was signed on November 22.

Bansal said eight new airports are coming up in Uttar Pradesh, including at Jewar and Ayodhya.

Five aerodromes are expected to be ready next at Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Azamgarh, Mordabad and Shravasti in 2022.

In 2023, two more are expected at Ayodhya and Muirpur, and Jewar will be operational in 2024.

Currently, there are nine operational airports in the state. They are at Lucknow, Agra, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Hindon, Kushinagar and Bareilly.

The Jewar airport will be the second international airport to come up in Delhi-NCR and will help decongest the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the national capital.

It is strategically located and will serve the people of cities including Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Faridabad and neighbouring areas, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The airport will be the logistics gateway of northern India and due to its scale and capacity, it will be a game changer for Uttar Pradesh, it added.

According to the statement, for the first time, an airport in India has been conceptualised with an integrated multi-modal cargo hub, with a focus on reducing the total cost and time for logistics.

Noida and Delhi will be connected to the airport through hassle-free metro service, as well as major nearby roads and highways like the Yamuna Expressway, Western Peripheral Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and others will be connected to the airport.

The airport will also be linked to the planned Delhi-Varanasi High-Speed Rail, enabling people to complete the journey between Delhi and the airport in only 21 minutes.

The airport will also house a state-of-the-art MRO (maintenance, repair and overhauling) service.

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.