The much-awaited Noida International Airport, the biggest airport in the country, is expected to be inaugurated in September 2024. The work of the airport, situated in Greater Noida in the National Capital Region (NCR), is put on a fast-track mode with almost the entire land required for the project having been acquired.

UP Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, who is regularly inspecting the development works of Noida International Airport, disclosed here on Tuesday that the airport will be dedicated to the public in September 2024 and flights will start immediately thereafter.

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Flughafen Zürich AG, the operator of Zurich Airport in Switzerland which had won the bid to build and operate the airport for 40 years in 2019, was also confident of completing the project within the time frame.

Daniel Bircher, Zurich Airport Asia CEO, had claimed at the Global Investors Summit 2023 in Lucknow that the Noida International Airport will be a true symbol of Swiss efficiency and Indian hospitality.

“Noida International Airport will be a lighthouse project which will help Western UP in development and will serve as a gateway to ease of doing business in Uttar Pradesh,” he had further said.

The chief secretary said the airport is an ambitious project of UP.

“With the establishment of this airport, there will be structural development of industrial infrastructure, due to which employment opportunities will increase, manufacturing and exports will be encouraged and air traffic will be facilitated, as well as there will be a significant increase in tourism.

Many industrial sectors have been developed near this airport in the Yamuna Authority area. In the coming days, this area will become the biggest center of industrial and service sector activities,” he said.

The CS also instructed the concessionaire to complete the construction work ahead of time.

The site clearance for Noida International Airport was given in the month of July, 2017 and in principle permission was granted by the Government of India in the month of May, 2018. In just two years, 1334 hectares i.e. about 3300 acres of land was acquired for this, along with environmental permission, obtaining all types of NOCs from various ministries and agencies of the Government of India.

The Noida International Airport Limited, a UP government company, signed a concession agreement with Zurich Airport’s company Yamuna International Airport Private Limited on October 7, 2020, laying the foundation for the construction of Delhi-NCR’s second international airport.

During the Covid pandemic period itself, the UP government had extended all necessary cooperation for the construction of the airport by signing a State Support Agreement with Zurich Airport on March 1, 2021.

This airport is located along the 100 meter access control Yamuna Expressway, which will be connected by making a modern interchange. The airport has been connected by constructing a 60 meter service road parallel to the Yamuna Expressway. The connectivity of this airport will also be done from the Eastern Peripheral Road by making an interchange on the Yamuna Expressway.

The Noida airport is being connected with Delhi-Varanasi High Speed Rail, whose station will be near the terminal of Noida Airport and the distance from Delhi to Noida Airport will be covered in just 21 minutes. It is also being connected to Ballabhgarh (Haryana) by Delhi Mumbai Expressway.

The license and possession of the entire 3300 acres of land was done by the bidder and Zurich Airport International AG’s SPV company Yamuna International Airport Pvt Ltd by selecting Tata Project Pvt Ltd as the EPC contractor for the runway, ATC and terminal building.  The development of this airport will be done in two stages. In the first stage, this airport will have two runways, which will increase to five runways in the second stage.

This airport of two runways will have a capacity of 70 million annual passengers and will cost about Rs 30,000 crore. The first stage will be developed in four phases. In the first phase, in the year 2023-24, this airport with a capacity of 12 million annual passengers will initially have one runway, which will increase in the year 2031 to an annual capacity of 30 million passengers and two runways.

In the year 2036 it will be 50 million capacity and in the year 2040 it will be 70 million passengers annual capacity.

An amount of Rs 29,560 crore will be spent on this project in all the four phases in the first stage. This airport will be modern, digital and equipped with net zero carbon emissions.

The concessionaire will spend Rs 5,730 crore for the development of the first phase , for which it has obtained a loan of Rs 3,725 crore from SBI and the remaining amount of Rs 2,005 crore will be provided by Zurich Airport International AG.

MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhauling) service will also be developed by the concessionaire in an area of 40 acres. A total of 1 lakh people will get direct and indirect employment from the Noida Airport project. Along with this, an estimated economic output of Rs 60,000 crore will also be received.

The airport will also have its own dedicated cargo terminal with a capacity of 2 million metric tonnes, which will be expanded to 8 million metric tonnes. Separate routes are also being arranged for cargo and it will prove to be a boon for the transportation of products of various industries established in this area.

In order to expand the airport, three runways will be built in the second stage. The third runway will be built in 1365 hectares, the fourth runway in 1318 hectares and the fifth runway in 735 hectares.

For the acquisition of 1365 hectares of land required for the construction of the third runway, the UP government has also made available the budget with permission and the process of acquisition has started.

The total capacity of 5 runways will be 225 million. Thus Noida International Airport Jewar which will have 5 runways after expansion will have a total capacity of 225 million.