New Delhi/Lucknow: An international airport with a capacity to handle 30-50 million passengers per year will come up at Jewar in Greater Noida in the next five to six years to ease the load on the Delhi airport, the government announced on Saturday.
“In-principle clearance has been granted” for the greenfield airport at Jewar, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at a press briefing in New Delhi.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land in Jewar for a “world- class” international airport, Mr Raju added.
Of the total land, 1,000 hectares will be acquired under the first phase of airport development, which will cost Rs 2,000 crore.
The government expects the entire project to cost Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore.
The Metro service in Noida is also likely to be extended up to Jewar in order to improve connectivity to the airport. The state government, which has been pushing for this project, has also been told by the Centre to improve road conditions and provide multi-modal transport facilities, said secretary, ministry of civil aviation, R.N. Choubey.
The announcement of a second airport in the national capital region comes at a time when the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi grapples with an ever- increasing number of passengers.
The IGI Airport currently handles nearly 62 million passengers every year. As per its updated master plan, the passenger handling capacity will be increased to 109.33 million passengers per year in a phased manner.
However, the airport is likely to reach that figure in the next seven years, necessitating a second airport in the vicinity of the national capital, according to the government.
“Within seven years Delhi airport will see 109 million trips a year, which will saturate its capacity. For the sake of NCR and NCR’s connectivity having a second airport is vitally important and that is what Noida international airport will accomplish,” minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said.
The capacity to handle 30-50 million passengers per year will put the Jewar airport on par with the Mumbai airport, which sees 45 million passengers per year.
Mr Sinha added that the new airport will also provide seamless domestic and international connectivity to western UP with Noida, Agra, Mathura, Meerut, Vrindavan, Meerut, Moradabad and Bulandshahr likely to serve as the the catchment area for the new aerodrome.
