Gautam Buddh Nagar admin acquires more land for Jewar airport

The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration on Wednesday acquired and transferred another tranche of 229.5 hectares of land to the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEDIA) for Jewar airport, officials said. They said 225 hectares of the land was acquired from Rohi village, while 4.5 hectares from Banwaribans, taking the total acquisition to 433 hectares so far.

As much as 1,235 hectare of land is to be acquired for the first phase of the greenfield airport in Jewar, District Magistrate Brajesh Narain Singh said. The first phase of the airport would be spread over 1,334 hectares and is expected to be completed by 2023, according to officials.

So far a number of Rs 1,925 crore has been disbursed to the farmers for the acquisition of the land, officer-in-charge for the project from administration Abhay Kumar Singh said. He added that resettlement and rehabilitation awards have been declared for around 5,000 families.

"On August 23, the administration will acquire 125 hectares of land from Dayanatpur. As per the district magistrate's guidelines, the remaining acquisition is expected to be completed by September 10," Singh told PTI. The airport, second in the national capital region after Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, will be spread over 5,000 hectare and cost an estimated Rs 15,754 crore and is touted to have six to eight runways, the most in India, when fully built, the officials said.

A global tender was floated to hire a developer for the proposed airport on May 30 by the Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL), an agency floated by the UP government for managing the mega project in Gautam Buddh Nagar district. The bidding process for the airport was floated on May 30 and last date for receiving queries was July 1.

The bid would be finalized on November 29 this year, and work on ground is expected by early 2020, according to the officials.