Western Uttar Pradesh cities likely to get direct links to Jewar

NOIDA: Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) is exploring a plan to connect the upcoming Jewar international airport not only with IGI Airport but with several cities in western UP and the NCR. The multi-modal traffic and transport plan will be designed by a consultant, officials said. Earlier, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) feasibility study on the project found that 5% IGI airport flyers are from Gautam Budh Nagar annually. People from Ghaziabad, Meeurt and Agra also fly from Delhi.
Arunveer Singh, YEIDA’s CEO, said that representatives of two firms — L&T Infrastructure Engineering Limited and aKYKno Capital Services Private Limited — gave presentations on the project on Monday. “Another consultant, RITES Ltd, will also give its presentation on Thursday. We will analyse the three models and select one consultant to conduct a further study,” he said.

Officials said L&T Infrastructure and aKYKno Capital gave their presentations on Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) for NCR. The RRTS is a high-speed transport system which is aimed at catering to passengers looking to travel relatively longer distances with fewer stops and at higher speed. This transport system is approximately three times faster than a normal metro service.

“YEIDA is also considering a direct connectivity between IGI Airport and the proposed airport at Jewar. The consultant would evaluate the potential connectivity options, which may be rapid rail, underground metro, highways, hyper-loop or other options,” another official said.

The PwC report on flyers distribution at IGI Airport shows 57% passengers are from NCT of Delhi, followed by Gautam Budh Nagar district (5%), Gurgaon (4%), Ghaziabad (1.5%), Agra (1%), Aligarh (.65%), Mathura (.55%) etc. Non-core regions of Punjab and Haryana also constitute 5% flyers at IGI Airport annually. The airport also attracts flyers from Shimla, Jammu & Kashmir, and other parts of the country. The study shows Uttar Pradesh only constitutes 11-12% total passenger movement at IGI Airport.

In recent years, air traffic at IGI Airport has grown significantly. Between 2011-12 and 2016-17, IGI Airport traffic has grown from 35.9 million passengers to 57.7 million — 10% increase in five years. During the same period, cargo handling increased from 568 thousand tonne to 857 thousand tonne annually — an 8.6% increase, statistics show.