Noida International Airport: 25 Per Cent Work Done, Phase 1 To Be Completed By September 2024

The work on the first phase of the Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh is complete by nearly 25 per cent.

This was communicated to the Chief Secretary DS Mishra during a review meeting at the airport site office in Jewar last week.

Tata Projects, which is the contractor for the project has been carrying out the construction of the terminal building, runway and air traffic control (ATC) in full swing. At present, the concreting work of the terminal piers is continuing, even as the land for the runway is being levelled.

The construction marked a milestone on 16 January with a "mega pour" of 1,800 cubic metres of concrete and 350 tonnes of cement in 20 hours.

The Jewar airport is understood to be the "most important" project of the state government and is being personally monitored by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Adityanath, during his inspection of the airport site in September 2022 had asked the project developers to speed up the airport work, by increasing the number of staff and machines, so that the project is completed by early 2024 and the first flight scheduled for September 2024 takes off on time.

Accordingly, the number of machinery and workforce has been increased at the airport site.

The meeting also deliberated on the matters related to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), customs, communications, navigation and surveillance systems for air traffic management (CNSATM) and security for the airport. The land requirement for the concerned agencies is currently being estimated and is expected to be finalised before the next coordination meeting.

Timeline

In November 2019, the Swiss firm Zurich Airport International AG (ZAIA) won the contract to build and operate the Noida airport for a period of 40 years, which includes construction period of four years in the first phase.

Subsequent to this, the Zurich Airport International AG (ZAIA) incorporated a 100 per cent owned Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) - Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), to develop the greenfield airport.

The State government on 7 October 2020 signed the concession agreement with YIAPL to commence the development of the Noida International Airport.

In June 2022, the Yamuna International Airport Private Limited selected Tata Projects Ltd. to undertake the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of Noida International Airport.

Following the ground-breaking ceremony by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2021, preparation for EPC activities had been initiated with earthworks and boundary construction at the site. The construction work on the site started only in June 2022 after the selection of the EPC agency.

India’s Largest Airport

The upcoming greenfield airport at Jewar will enhance domestic as well as international connectivity to and from Delhi-NCR, Noida and Western Uttar Pradesh.

The airport, billed to be India's largest upon completion, will be developed in four phases, after which it would have an annual passenger capacity of 70 million and two terminal buildings, spread across an area of 5,000 acres.

As per the concession agreement, the first phase for 12 million passengers per annum is to be completed and made operational by September 2024.

The master plan development as foreseen across four phases includes the following key features:

The survey work for acquisition of land for the second phase of the NIA is also underway - second phase of the NIA is planned in an area of 1,365 hectares.