New Delhi Nov 25 (FN Agency) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar, Gautam Buddha Nagar of Uttar Pradesh. With this Uttar Pradesh will soon become the only state in India to have five international airports. “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,” the official statement said. This airport will be the second international airport to come up in Delhi NCR and will help decongest the IGI Airport,” it said. It is strategically located and will serve the people of cities including Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Faridabad and neighbouring areas and it will bring new opportunities for numerous enterprises, and also create tremendous employment opportunities.
The statement said the airport will be the logistics gateway of northern India and due to its scale and capacity, the airport will be a gamechanger for UP. 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. “Through facilitating seamless movement of industrial products, the airport will play a crucial role in helping the region attract huge investments, boost rapid industrial growth, and enable reach of local products to national and international markets,” the statement said. “All major nearby roads and highways like the Yamuna Expressway, Western Peripheral Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and others will be connected to the airport. The airport will also be linked to the planned Delhi-Varanasi High Speed Rail, enabling the journey between Delhi and airport in only 21 minutes,” it said. The development of the first phase of the airport is being done with 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,” the official statement said.