PM Modi laid foundation for the Noida International Airport

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar, Gautam Buddha Nagar, on Thursday. With this, Uttar Pradesh will become the only state in India to have five international airports. The foundation stone of the new airport will be laid by PM Modi at 1 PM on Thursday.

Located at a distance of about 72 km from the IGI airport in New Delhi, the new airport will be India’s largest after its completion, according to officials.

The upcoming Jewar airport will have maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility spread over 40 acres. “Today almost 85% of aircraft with Indian carriers go abroad for MRO service, spending about Rs 15,000 crore annually. This Rs 30,000-crore project will change that situation and aircraft will fly in here from abroad for availing the services,” the PM said.

The airport will expand to around 1,300 hectares in the first phase. The first phase of the airport is scheduled to be completed by 2024 and will have the capacity to serve around 1.2 crore passengers a year. The airport will expand to serve 70 million passengers by the end of phase 4, depending on passenger growth and traffic.

It will be executed by international bidder Zurich Airport International AG as concessionaire, PTI reported. According to officials, the groundwork for the first phase has been completed already.

All major roads and highways like the Yamuna Expressway, Western Peripheral Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, and others will be connected to the airport.

PM Modi said that it will also bring around 1 lakh job openings and that many other projects like Film City, Electronic Park are coming up in the region.

It will also be India’s first net-zero emissions airport. According to officials, land has been earmarked to be developed as a forest park using trees from the project site.