Greater Noida: The Taj International Airport or better known as Jewar Airport is a proposed international airport to be constructed in Jewar in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh. The Airport is located at a distance of 85 km from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport and hence will the second airport in NCR.
The project was the dream of current Home Minister Rajnath Singh who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2001. In May 2017, after a long hiatus of approximately 16 years, the union Government finally gave nod to build the proposed airport.
Let’s take a look at a brief timeline about the project, how the dream was put forward and how it got rejected at various stages:
2001: Then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Rajnath Singh proposes a Greenfield Taj international airport and aviation hub (TIAH) at Jewar.
2010: BJP government lost elections and Mayawati came to power. CM Mayawati supports the aviation project at Jewar.
2012: The UPA government at the Centre says an airport cannot come up within 150 km of the IGI Airport in Delhi, claiming that it would impact traffic and revenue generation. Thus this site was cancelled.
2013: Akhilesh Yadav led UP government shifts the project to Kurikupa near Hirangaon, Tundla in Firozabad district as the site for the proposed airport. It was 200 km away from the IGI airport.
2014: in January, Defense Ministry raised some objects to the proposed site near Tundla. Later in May, When BJP came back to power in Centre, Dr. Mahesh Sharma, former tourism minister, and Gautam Budh Nagar MP, promises to revive the project at Jewar.
2015: Finally in June, the civil aviation ministry cleared the proposal for a second international airport in Delhi-NCR which is to be built at Jewar in Greater Noida. After the announcement, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expresses willingness to implement the project and the Yamuna Expressway industrial development authority (YEIDA) and reserves 5,000 acres of land for it.
2016: The state and central Governments pledge support to the project. In April, UP civil aviation director Devendra Swarup conducts site inspection. Union Defence Ministry clears the project in June. In September, State government asks YEIDA to conduct Obstacle Limitation Survey (OLS) in the area and finally land acquisition works commenced.
2017: The SP Government lost elections and BJP once again came into power after a gap of 16 years. Yogi Adityanath confirms that the airport will be built in Jewar only. Later in June, he directed the officials to expedite the appointment of a consultant for preparing the detailed project report (DPR). The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has already notified 3,000 hectares of land for a world-class international airport. YEIDA called pre-bid meeting for the airport that is to come up at Jewar.
In December, it was finalized that the airport will be built in four phases and out of complete 3000 hectares, 1206 hectares land is required in the first phase at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore.