With Noida, 5 International Airports For UP Ahead Of Polls: 10 Points

This will be PM Modi’s first public event in western UP since the withdrawal of the three farm laws that triggered 15 months of protests. It also comes as the BJP government in UP – one of the states most affected by the protests, which many say could affect its chances for re-election – preps for next year’s polls.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will today review preparations for Thursday’s noon ceremony. The BJP has also organised a big public meeting for the occasion.

The Noida airport will be UP’s fifth international airport – the most of any state – and will be a “game-changer”, the centre has said. At present, UP has eight operational airports. A further 13 airport and seven airstrips are being developed, the centre added.

The airport is being billed as the “logistics gateway of northern India” and will “establish UP on the global logistics map”, the centre said. It will also be only the second international airport in the national capital region; the other is Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

It will be about 72 km from the IGI airport, about 40 km from Noida and about the same distance from a planned multi-modal logistics hub at Dadri. Work on the first phase is expected to be completed by 2024 – when India will vote in the 18th Lok Sabha election.

Being built near the town of Jewar in UP’s Gautam Buddh Nagar district (part of the NCR), it is expected to serve people in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Agra, Faridabad, and nearby areas, as well help decongest air and vehicular traffic in and around IGI airport, the centre has said.

Connectivity will be handled by the “multimodal transit hub”, which will include metro and high-speed rail, as well as taxi and bus services. It will also offer private parking facilities, the centre said. Noida and Delhi will be connected via “hassle-free metro services” and major roads and highways will link the airport to other cities, the centre added.

A dedicated cargo terminal will have a capacity of 20 lakh metric tonnes, which will be further expanded to 80 lakh metric tonnes. The centre has declared that “through facilitating seamless movement of industrial products, the airport will play a crucial role in helping the region attract huge investments and boost rapid industrial growth”.

First phase costs will be over Rs 10,050 crore. The airport will be spread over 1,300 hectares and be used by around 1.2 crore passengers. The new airport will also to be India’s first “net zero emissions” airport, with land set aside for a ‘forest’ that will “preserve local native species (of flora and fauna).

Earlier UP had two international airports – Chaudhary Charan Singh in Lucknow and one in Varanasi (Prime Minister Modi’s constituency). Since 2012 a third has been set up in Kushinagar and a fourth – in the temple town of Ayodhya – is expected to become operational early next year.