Speedy Patel nod for Noida airport

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry has approved the setting up of a new airport at Jewar near Delhi, seven weeks after the Uttar Pradesh government sent in a proposal for the same. Jewar, a two-hour drive east from Delhi, will see a spanking new international airport come up by 2010, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said on Friday. The project is called the Taj International Airport Hub by the Uttar Pradesh government.
The ministry is seeking the Union cabinet’s approval for the project by late September.
The idea for the Jewar airport was first floated in 2001 by the Uttar Pradesh government.
It will require an acquisition of 1,500 hectares of land and an investment of Rs3,505 crore (excluding the cost of land) has been estimated for the project, split over several phases. The state government will select a private partner, who will lead construction and management of the proposed airport with a 74% equity stake, with the balance 26% equally split between airport regulator Airports Authority of India (AAI), under the civil aviation ministry, and Uttar Pradesh government-owned Taj Expressway Authority.
The private partner will be selected through a bidding process which will include multiple stages of seeking an expression of interest followed by pre-qualification and financial bids. The Jewar site first received a technical feasibility approval from the AAI in 2003. The project, however, did not move further with a change of government when an earlier Mayawati-led government fell in August the same year.
25/08/07 Tarun Shukla/Ashish Sharma/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Aug 2007