16 yrs on, Jewar finally manages a 'Yes'

After an almost 16-year-long wait, the state government has given the nod to begin work on the Noida International Airport. Officials associated with the project say they expect to start the ground work within the next six months.

"We have granted in-principle approval for a greenfield airport at Jewar (Greater Noida) to cater to the growing flying requirements of NCR."

"The area notified for Noida Airport is 3,000 hectares and the first phase will be developed for 1,000 hectares. We expect Rs 15-20 thousand crores of investment," Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju tweeted.

Once completed, the Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years. Officials say that the airport is likely to be operational in the next five to six years.

& Analysis

The Jewar airport project has faced various bottlenecks over the years, the most notable being that the previous Samajwadi Party regime wanted the international airport to be in Agra. This led to a clash with the Centre which was resolved only after the Yogi government came to power in UP.

A second airport needs to come up in the next four to eight years as by then the terminal capacity of Delhi's IGI airport will be saturated. The other big positives from the new international airport is that tourism and real estate in the area is likely to boom. Developers already foresee a big boom in real estate projects as demand for property will rise.