A new Airport at Jewar

Finally Jewar Airport is a reality. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the project on December 23. It’s a project with many firsts: the first world-scale airport in Uttar Pradesh, the first airport outside of the GMR-run IGI Airport to get a waiver for the ‘no new airport rule’ within 150-km radius, and the biggest FDI investment in the state. In fact, it could set the template for all future investments in the region. A report on the airport and its prospects.

Jewar Airport is aimed at the creation of a world-class, futuristic airport providing direct air connectivity, a very wide domestic and international network, and a seamless passenger travel experience.

Once it becomes operational, the Jewar airport is tipped to be India’s largest airport spread across an area of 1,334 hectares. Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), a 100 percent subsidiary of Swiss concessionaire Zurich International Airport AG has been tasked to develop the Airport at a cost of ₹29,560 crore. The airport’s overall construction is planned to be completed in four phases over a period of approximately 30 years. After the first phase the airport will be equipped to serve 12 million passengers every year and the construction of its second phase will commence by 2031-32. The construction work is underway to build a terminal building and two runways in the first phase which is likely to be completed and flight operations are expected to commence by 2024.

Intriguingly the proposal to build an airport at Jewar was mooted when Rajnath Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2001. But over the past 20 years, the administration in the Centre and the state passed from one party to another, delaying the project. Finally, the green signal for the development of the airport at Jewar came in December 2018. But the net result is that project which would have cost approximately ₹5000 crores in 2007–2008 escalated 300% to ₹15,754 crores over 13 years.