Work at Noida airport site to be expedited as development plan gets approval

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) approved the Noida international airport’s development plan, officials said Thursday, paving the way for work to be accelerated at the site.

According to officials, the development plan was approved at the Noida International Airport Limited’s (NIAL) board meeting that was held in Lucknow on Wednesday and was attended by Yeida’s chief executive officer Arun Vir Singh, who has additional charge as CEO of NIAL, and other top officials.

“Now the construction of the terminals, runways and other facilities will take place according to the development plan sanctioned by the board. The work will have to be completed within the stipulated deadline approved in the development plan. The work will be reviewed every month,” said Arun Vir Singh.

The construction work on the terminals, runways and other facilities will begin next month.

The work on the ground started after November 25, 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for this project. The concessionaire, Swiss company Zurich International AG, is scheduled to make the airport operational by September 29, 2024.

It has so far completed the construction of 9km of the 17km-long boundary wall around 1,334 hectares of land on which the project is being developed. The land has also been completely levelled.

The Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) is scheduled to finalise a contractor for the construction of the runways, terminals, parking and other facilities on April 28. Three agencies–L&T Construction, Tata Projects and Shapoorji Pallonji–have participated in the bidding process, said officials.

The first runway will be 3,900m-long and 45m-wide. The airport will start operations initially only with one runway. There will be three taxiways to facilitate the passengers’ commute at this facility.

“There will be 10 entries for domestic passengers, two for international passengers, 10 migration desks and 48 checkpoints,” said Singh.

“We will build a 2.8MLD (million litres a day) water treatment plant and a 6.28MLD sewage treatment plant for drinking water purposes and treating the sewage,” said Singh.

The board has also approved the construction of 220KV, 33KV and 11KV power sub-stations to meet power demands at the airport.

“We have also extended the term of consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers for another year to assist in the development of the project,” said Singh.