41% of Jewar passengers likely to be from Delhi

GREATER NOIDA: Price water house Coopers (PwC), the agency preparing the techno-economic feasibility report (TEFR) for the sanctioned international airport at Jewar, has said at least 41% of the passengers will be from the National Capital Territory and around 26% from Uttar Pradesh.
Officials said the PwC report had been prepared after studying a 150km area across 42 districts in multiple states. The preliminary report, submitted to the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority on Monday, also said that the airport would cater to 6.2 million passengers by 2022-23, when is it expected to become operational. In 2017, the Delhi airport witnessed around 60 million passengers.



According to the report, the number of passengers at Jewar will touch the 39 million mark in the first 10 years of operation and become around 102.5 million in 2050.

Officials said PwC had submitted its preliminary report to YEIDA chairman Prabhat Kumar on Monday. “The catchment area was surveyed on several parameters. The total population covered was 112 million across 42 districts in different states,” said Arun Vir Singh, the CEO of YEIDA. “Close proximity to the proposed airport was taken into account besides the demand of the hinterland. The agency has been asked to prepare a more detailed report and submit it in the second week of March.”

Shailendra Bhatia, officer on special duty at YEIDA, further said the report had studied Delhi NCT and several districts across UP, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. “While the projected traffic for NCT of Delhi was 41%, UP was 26%, Haryana 25%, Rajasthan 5% and Uttarkhand 3%,” he said. “The 42 districts include Saharanpur, Meerut, Agra, Bijnore, Alwar, Moradabda, Karnal, Sonipat, Faridabad, Hathras and Mathura,” he added.

“The preliminary report also states that by the same year, airports in Delhi and Jewar will together cater to a traffic of over 255 million passengers,” Bhatia said.

In one of its earlier reports, PwC had projected that by 2024-25, the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi will become saturated with a 100 million passenger count, making the international airport at Jewar all the more necessary.

YEIDA officials further said that Kumar, who also holds the post of the divisional commissioner of Meerut, had reviewed the progress of the preparation of the TEFR. The final report is expected to be completed by March 15 along with the project’s environment and social impact assessment.

The tender process is likely to start by June-July. If all goes according to the plan, the foundation for the project is likely to be laid in 2018, officials said.