New Delhi, Nov 23: Uttar Pradesh is poised to become the only state in India to have five international airports, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh on November 25 at 1 PM.

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. A special focus of this grand vision has been on the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) that is witnessing the development of multiple new international airports including the recently inaugurated Kushinagar airport and the under construction international airport at Ayodhya.

This airport will be the second international airport to come up in Delhi NCR. It will help decongest the IGI Airport. It is strategically located and will serve the people of cities including Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Faridabad and neighbouring areas.

The airport will be the logistics gateway of northern India. Due to its scale and capacity, the airport will be a gamechanger for UP. It will unleash the potential of UP to the world, and help establish the state on the global logistics map. 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 tonne. 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. This will bring new opportunities for numerous enterprises, and also create tremendous employment opportunities.

The airport will develop a Ground Transportation Centre that will feature a multimodal transit hub, housing metro and high-speed rail stations, taxi, bus services and private parking. This will enable seamless connectivity of the airport with road, rail, and metro. Noida and Delhi will be connected to the airport through hassle free metro service. 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.

The airport will also house a state-of-art MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Overhauling) Service. The design of the airport is focused on low operating costs and seamless and fast transfer processes for passengers. The airport is introducing a swing aircraft stand concept, providing flexibility for airlines to operate an aircraft for both domestic and international flights from the same contact stand, without having to re-position the aircraft. This will ensure quick and efficient aircraft turnarounds at the airport, while ensuring a smooth and seamless passenger transfer process.

It will be India’s first net zero emissions airport. It has earmarked dedicated land to be developed as forest park using trees from the project site. NIA will preserve all native species and be nature positive throughout the development of the airport.

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. It will be executed by the international bidder Zurich Airport International AG as concessionaire. The groundwork for the first phase regarding land acquisition and rehabilitation of the affected families has been completed.