Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia says land acquisition for Noida greenfield airport completed

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in the Lok Sabha on February 10.

Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia said in Parliament today that only eight of the 21 greenfield airports that have been sanctioned by the Centre under the government’s much-touted “Greenfield Airports Policy, 2008” have been operationalised so far.

The “Greenfield Airports Policy, 2008” provides guidelines, procedure and conditions for the establishment of new greenfield airports across the country.

Under the Greenfield Airports Policy, the government has accorded “in-principle” approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports at Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Bijapur, Hassan and Shimoga in Karnataka, Datia (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Oravakal in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Hollongi (Itanagar) in Arunachal Pradesh. Of these, Durgapur, Shirdi, Sindhudurg, Pakyong, Kannur, Kalaburagi, Oravakal and Kushinagar have been operationalised. While Shirdi, Kannur and Kushinagar are international airports, the other five are domestic airports.

The list of approved but yet to be operationalised international airports are Mopa, Navi Mumbai, Noida (Jewar), Dholera, Hirasar and Bhogapuram.

The Minister also disclosed that the government had granted “in principle” approval to the Government of Uttar Pradesh in May 2018 for setting up a new greenfield international airport at Jewar (Noida). The Uttar Pradesh government had appointed Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) as the implementing agency for the project under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode and awarded the project to Zurich Airport International AG for development of the airport. Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Zurich Airport International AG.

Scindia said that the acquisition of 1,334 hectare of land for Phase-I of the project had been completed and the possession of the land obtained. The estimated project cost for Phase I of the airport is Rs.8,914 crore, including the cost of land acquisition. The airport, according to the Concession Agreement, is scheduled to be completed by the end of September 2024. ENDs