Uttar Pradesh okays groundbreaking ceremonies for Noida airport, Film City

GREATER NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh government has asked the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) to start preparations for bhoomipujan of several projects,including the Noida Internal airport and the proposed Film City project

GREATER NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh government has asked the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) to start preparations for bhoomipujan of several projects,including the Noida Internal airport and the proposed Film City project.

HT Image

With a series of events planned, the bhoomipujan of the Noida international airport being the biggest draw, officials said Yeida has already begun looking for an agency which has handled top events. Among the criteria for the event management firm includes experience in handling at least five events presided by the Prime Minister or chief ministers.

“Officials said the authority will also carry out the groundbreaking ceremony of the Film City project later this year after completing all formalities. We have started the process to hire the event management company because the process takes time and we have to follow procedures to finalise a company,” said a Yeida official, who asked not to be named.

The UP government has already handed over 1,334 hectares of land to Swiss company, Zurich International AG, which is likely to start work on the airport project at the ground by June this year. Officials said the firm is currently in the process of completing the required formalities before starting the work on the ground.

The state government has also sanctioned ₹2,000 crore for acquiring 1,365 hectares of land for the expansion of airport project.

“We will start deciding on land rates for the second phase once the social impact assessment survey is completed. We are in process of shifting farmers so that the airport work can begin,” said Balram Singh, additional district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.

A total of 8,971 farmers’ families have given either their agricultural land or houses for the airport. Of them, 3,627 families will be displaced, the officials said, adding that each farmer/family will given a plot which is 50% of their existing land/house. The administration has allotted at least 1,000 plots to farmers who will be displaced while the remaining will be shifted after allotment of land, “probably next month”.

“We are shifting farmers to airport townships properly so that the work can start on time,” said Arun Vir Singh, chief executive officer of Yeida.

Meanwhile, Yeida has sought permission from the UP government to issue a global tender to hire a developer to build the first phase of Film City on 376 of the total 1,000 acres of land.