UP Polls: The Noida airport will be only the second international airport in the national capital region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport in Uttar Pradesh's Jewar on Thursday, the centre said this morning, calling the new airport part of the PM's "vision for a future-ready aviation sector".
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This will be PM Modi's first public event in western UP since he announced the withdrawal of the three controversial farm laws last week. The three laws triggered nearly 15 months of fierce protests, with a bulk of farmers from Punjab and western UP.
The BJP, which staunchly defended the laws, was criticised for withdrawing the laws months before elections in both states and half-a-dozen others. In UP, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav told NDTV he was confident of a "pincer movement" - farmers in west UP and regional parties in the east - working together to oust the ruling party.
This 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. 13 airport and seven airstrips are being developed. It will also be only the second international airport in the NCR; the other is Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport.
It is being widely seen as a key part of an expansive infrastructure project of the Yogi Adityanath government in the state - something the BJP can point to as it seeks the approval of voters next year. The airport will be the "logistics gateway of northern India" and will "establish UP on the global logistics map", the centre has said.
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 Jewar in UP's Gautam Buddh Nagar district, 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 serve around 1.2 crore passengers. It will also be India's first "net zero emissions" airport, with land for a 'forest' that will "preserve native species.
Earlier UP had two international airports - Chaudhary Charan Singh in Lucknow and one in Varanasi (PM Modi's constituency). Since 2012 a third has come up in Kushinagar and a fourth - in the temple town of Ayodhya - is due to become operational early next year.
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