Jewar to catapult Gautam Budh Nagar into first aerotropolis of India

LUCKNOW: With an international airport coming up at Jewar in Gautam Budh Nagar, it will become the first aerotropolis of the country, ushering in economic activities, mainly in the MSME and agriculture sectors, said additional chief secretary, MSME and exports promotion, Navneet Sehgal while addressing a meeting to review functioning of his department held here on Friday.
Spread over 5,000 acres, the Jewar airport, to be managed by Flughafen Zürich AG (FZAG), based in Kloten, Switzerland, would be the country’s largest airport having six runways, stated Sehgal. In fact, the Jewar Aerotropolis (JA) would boost up business activities, resulting in more job avenues for locals as well as from outside the district, he added.
An agreement signed between the Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) and Zurich Airport International would allow the Swiss developer to begin work at the site of the upcoming Jewar airport near Delhi. A 'concession agreement' for the greenfield airport, estimated to cost Rs 29,560 crore, was also inked between a UP government's agency and the Yamuna International Airport Private Ltd., a special purpose vehicle floated by the Zurich Airport for the project, Sehgal said, adding that the first phase of the project will be spread over an area of 1,334 hectare and is expected to cost Rs 4,588 crore. He further said that Jewar is anticipated to be a popular global aerotropolis.
Meanwhile, Arun Vir Singh, CEO, Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) and board member of NIAL, who also attended the meeting, said, “The construction will start in 2021 and the beginning of operations is planned for 2024. After the work on the first phase is completed, we are expecting 12 to 16 million passengers annually at the Jewar airport."
Townships like Greater Noida, Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, and Ghaziabad, positioned strategically from the airport, can see long term growth, Sehgal said and added that Jewar’s strategic location, regional connectivity, infrastructure, regional economy, operational capacity, governance and real estate demand are sure factors that could make it an airport capital.