Noida airport to create 1 lakh job opportunities: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Jyotiraditya Scindia.

It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direction that Asia's biggest airport had to be built in Uttar Pradesh, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia noted on Thursday at the foundation-laying ceremony for the Noida International Airport, which he said will create one lakh job opportunities.

Scindia said the airport, located in Jewar in Gautam Buddh Nagar district in western Uttar Pradesh, will bring investments worth Rs 34,000 crore and the first phase of the greenfield project is expected to be completed in 2024 with a capacity to handle 1.2 crore passengers annually. "By the last phase of development, the Noida International Airport will even surpass Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport and become India's leading airport," Scindia told the gathering.

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He said earlier, there were only four airports in Uttar Pradesh but now, there are nine and this (Jewar) will be the 10th airport in the state, as he hit out at the previous non-BJP governments. "It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direction that Asia's biggest airport had to be built in Uttar Pradesh," Scindia said.

"Where there is a will, there is a way…. It was an ambitious resolution of the prime minister, which has come true today," he added. Noting that Uttar Pradesh has more people than the combined population of the UK, France and Germany, Scindia said the state will have a total of 17 airports in the coming years and the upcoming aerodrome at Jewar will create one lakh employment opportunities.

He said the Noida International Airport "will become the largest aerodrome in Asia". Currently, there are nine operational airports in Uttar Pradesh and eight more will come up, Scindia said.

The foundation stone of the airport, the second international aerodrome in Delhi-NCR, was laid by the prime minister.