Uttar Pradesh will become the only state in India to have five international airports when Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar, Gautam Buddha Nagar on 25 November.
The development of the airport is in line with the vision of the Prime Minister towards boosting connectivity and creating a future-ready aviation sector. A special focus of this grand vision has been on the state of Uttar Pradesh that is witnessing the development of multiple new international airports, including the recently inaugurated Kushinagar airport and the under-construction international airport at Ayodhya.
This airport will be the second international airport to come up in Delhi NCR. It will help decongest the IGI Airport. It is strategically located and will serve the people of cities including Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Faridabad, and neighbouring areas.
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. The dedicated cargo terminal will have a capacity of 20 lakh metric tonne, which will be expanded to 80 lakh metric tonnes.
The airport will develop a Ground Transportation Centre that will feature a multimodal transit hub, housing metro and high-speed rail stations, taxi, bus services, and private parking. Noida and Delhi will be connected to the airport through hassle-free metro service. The airport will also be linked to the planned Delhi-Varanasi High-Speed Rail, enabling the journey between Delhi and the airport in only 21 minutes.
It will be India’s first net-zero emissions airport. It has earmarked dedicated land to be developed as a forest park using trees from the project site. NIA will preserve all native species and be nature-positive throughout the development of the airport. The development of the first phase of the airport is being done at a cost of over Rs 10,050 crore. Spread over more than 1300 hectares of land, the completed first phase of the airport will have a capacity to serve around 1.2 crore passengers a year, and work on it is scheduled to be completed by 2024