Work on the upcoming Noida International Airport is progressing as scheduled and the first flight is expected to take off by December 2023 or January 2024, a senior government executive said.
Also, the resettlement and rehabilitation of over three thousand families who are getting displaced due to the mega Greenfield project are likely to be completed by May 2021, Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) CEO Arun Vir Singh said.
"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 said.
Singh, also the CEO of the local Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), said the flight operation has to begin within three years of the signing of the concession agreement.
Over 1,300 hectare from six villages of Rohi, Parohi, Kishorepur, Dayanatpu, Ranchera, and Banwari Bans in the Jewar tehsil has been acquired by the state government under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013, for the first phase development of the airport.
The Noida International Airport will have two runways and a capacity for handling 12 million passengers per annum in the first phase.
Eventually, it will have five runways and a passenger capacity of 70 million a year when completed at an estimated cost of Rs 29,560 crore in total, according to officials.
On the resettlement and rehabilitation of affected people, 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.
"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.
"Altogether, the resettlement and rehabilitation of these families from the six villages will cost the government around Rs 350 crore," he said.
