In a significant development for second phase expansion of the under construction Noida International Airport (NIA), over 70 per cent land owners have agreed for the required land acquisition.

Officials on Friday said they have received consent letters from more than 70 per cent of farmers - the minimum required by law for the government to proceed for land acquisition for the second phase.

Around 1,365 hectare of land is to be acquired for the second phase of the greenfield project from six villages - Ranhera, Kureb, Dayanatpur, Karauli Bangar, Mundrah and Birampur - the officials said.

MLA Jewar Dhirendra Singh said, "The consent for land acquisition crossed the 70 per cent mark today and reached nearly 73 per cent."

Singh had been extensively touring the six villages for land owners' consent after several of them denied to give up their assets in lieu of compensation.

In a meeting with farmers in Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on October 14 assured them an increased compensation of Rs 3,400 per sq metre (including the interest amount).

Deputy Collector (Jewar) Abhay Pratap Singh said, "With the consent level crossing the 70 per cent mark, the district administration can send proposal to the government for carrying out formalities under Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act."

"Once the government's approval comes, survey for land and compensation will begin," Singh said.

According to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, the consent of at least 70 per cent land owners is required for acquisition.

The law also mandates several other features, like rate of compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation facilities, for the government to proceed with land acquisition.

India’s Largest Airport At Jewar

The Noida airport will be located about 72 km from Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi; about 52 km from Noida, about 130 km from Agra and about 90 km from Multi-Modal Logistics Hub at Dadri.

The airport will have a single runway in phase I and will be capable of handling twelve million passengers annually. The first runway will be 3,900m-long and 45m-wide. The airport will start operations initially with one runway.

The new airport would provide the national capital region (NCR) with a second facility after Indira Gandhi International Airport. This addition would support the decongestion of IGI Airport, which is soon expected to reach its maximum capacity.

The project spread across an area of 5,000 acres, is being developed by Zurich Airport International AG (ZAIA) at an estimated cost of Rs 29,560 crore.

The Uttar Pradesh State Government has instructed the developer of NIA to speed up the airport work so that the project is completed by early 2024 and the first flight scheduled for September 2024 takes off on time.

The directive comes after UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's visit to the project site last month.

(With inputs from PTI)