Noida airport marks 4.2 million safe work hours in four months

The Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar has finished 4.2 million safe work hours in four months after beginning foundation work in November of last year. A safe work hour is one in which work happens without lost time, accidents, or injuries resulting in time off from work.

The four-kilometre runway at the airport has also begun to take form – when finished, it may rank as the fourth-longest in the nation and the longest in Uttar Pradesh, according to officials.

The airport is coming up in four phases. By the end of 2023, most of the construction in the first phase will finish, and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) will receive the structures and place radars and other navigation equipment, officials said on Tuesday.

“The installation of radars, navigational equipment, and other items will require six months after we turn over the structures to AAI by the end of the year. Then we will start flight testing at least four months before we initiate commercial operations, which will likely start at the end of 2024. We are on track,” said NIA chief executive officer Christoph Schnellmann.

The first test flight will take off in mid-2024. At least 2,600 laborers and other employees are working at the airport site, according to NIA officials, and that number will increase to 6,000 by the end of the year. Over 400 pieces of heavy and small machinery are in use at the construction site, and 32,000 cubic meters of concrete, 14,000 tonnes of steel, and 17,000 tonnes of cement have been used in construction so far.

“We have a self-sustainable model, and we keep about 15-30 days’ stock of material so that work does not stop. We are working almost throughout the day and night. The terminal building has started taking shape already, and simultaneously we are developing the runway on the north side. Its gradient is being levelled with several layers, after which there will be pavement layers and lighting,” said Dinesh Jamwal, NIA’s head of project delivery.

HT had earlier reported that the earthwork for the airport is 100% complete, and vertical construction is underway for the terminal building, commercial areas, and the runway.

NIA’s highlight will be an 80-acre cargo hub, making it the largest in the country as regards cargo handling capacity.

“The cargo hub will initially have an annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes that will eventually expand to two million tonnes. We will have all the facilities with the latest technology in the aviation industry for a warehouse management system, material handling, automation, and tracing solutions to enhance operations and end-to-end visibility,” said Kiran Jain, chief operating officer of NIA.

The cargo hub will have an integrated cargo terminal, warehousing zone, logistics park, a coolport for pharma and other perishable and temperature-sensitive cargo, courier terminal, and trucking centre, said officials.

Jain added that upon completing the first phase of the airport by the end of next year, there would be parking bays for 28 aircraft at a time, and it would be able to handle 40-45 departures every hour. Officials, however, did not divulge which airlines have yet shown interest in the airport.

“We are in talks with all major airlines of the country. We believe NIA will initially cater to domestic traffic and eventually have more international operations and cargo traffic,” said the CEO.

Upon completion, NIA will be the largest airport in India over an area of 5,000 hectares. The first phase covers an area of 1,334 hectares with one runway and a terminal building expected to handle annual passenger traffic of 12 million. The capacity of phase one will be expanded with another runway on the south side, sandwiching the terminals between both runways. Officials said work on the next stage would begin when the current phase reaches 80% of its planned capacity.