E-Paper
Noida International Airport: Uttar Pradesh government preps for groundbreaking ceremony
With Noida International Airport, Uttar Pradesh will be the first state to have five international airports, PM to lay foundation stone on November 25
The Uttar Pradesh government’s preparations are in full swing for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Noida International Airport at Jewar in Gautam Budh Nagar district on Thursday (November 25). Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the new airport on the occasion.
With this, Uttar Pradesh is on way to having five international airports, the highest for any state in the country, said a state government spokesperson.
“The state had only two international airports till 2017 — Varanasi and Lucknow. The Kushinagar international airport became operational after it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 20 while work on the international airport in Ayodhya is in full swing and air services are expected to start early next year,” the spokesperson said.
“The fifth international airport is to come up at Jewar near Noida in the National Capital Region (NCR),” the spokesperson added.
The Noida International Airport will be India’s largest airport after its completion. It will come up about 72 km from the existing Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi, 40 km from Noida and about 40 km from the multi-modal logistics hub at Dadri, said the spokesperson.
At present, Uttar Pradesh has eight operational airports, while 13 airports and seven airstrips are being developed. The operational airports handling commercial flights in UP are in Lucknow, Varanasi, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Agra, Kanpur, Prayagraj and Hindon (Ghaziabad).
Uttar Pradesh minister for civil aviation Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi will go to the site on Tuesday to oversee preparations for the November 25 event.
“The Uttar Pradesh government is committed to providing affordable, accessible, safe and international standard air services to the common citizens of the state. Noida International Airport will prove to be the jewel in the crown of Uttar Pradesh. It would prove an economic engine for the development of Uttar Pradesh in the days to come. I, with my team, will remain in Jewar from tomorrow to personally monitor the groundbreaking and foundation laying ceremony of the airport,” the minister said.
“It will truly be a momentous achievement for a state that is on its way to be a leader in civil aviation in the country,” he added.
Phase I of the airport will have the capacity to serve 12 million passengers a year and is scheduled to be completed in 36 months. The Noida International Airport will expand to serve 70 million passengers by the end of phase 4, subject to passenger growth and traffic.
