The first flight from the Noida International Airport is expected to take off by December 2023 or January 2024 as the work on the upcoming airport is progressing, a senior government executive said on Sunday.
The resettlement and rehabilitation of over three thousand families who are getting displaced due to the mega greenfield project is likely to be completed by May 2021, Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) CEO Arun Vir Singh said.
"There are 3,076 families which are to be resettled. First and foremost, the families whose land has been taken up for the first runway will be resettled and then those whose land has been acquired for the second runway," he said.
Singh said all tenders regarding the exercise have already been awarded and work is underway. This work will be completed in six months and all displaced families will be rehabilitated and resettled in Jewar Bangar, he added.
"Altogether, the resettlement and rehabilitation of these families from the six villages will cost the government around Rs 350 crore," he said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on December 18, had approved the name, design and logo of the airport being built in the Jewar area along the Yamuna Expressway in the Gautam Buddh Nagar district. The brand logo is a symbol that shows a Sarus Crane - the state bird of Uttar Pradesh - in flight.
In November last year, Switzerland-headquartered private firm Zurich Airport International AG (ZAIA) won the contract to build and operate the airport in Greater Noida for a period of 40 years, which includes a construction period of four years in the first phase.
ZAIA received the security clearance from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to develop the Noida International Airport at Jewar in May this year. Earlier, a consortium of Nordic, rimshaw, Haptic and STUP were selected as the architect team to design the airport.
"The project, so far, is coming up as per the schedule and the first flight from the airport is expected to take off in 2023. It would be either December 2023 or January 2024," Singh told PTI in an interview.
The Noida International Airport will have two runways and a capacity for handling 12 million passengers per annum in the first phase.